


Grimoire Blastia

by orphan_account



Category: BlazBlue, Tales of Vesperia
Genre: F/M, Gen, blastia, grimoire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2017-12-25 16:15:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 43,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Barriers between Worlds were to never be breached. Unfortunately, Terumi didn't know the meaning of restraint. AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ars Magus and Blastia

Death is not punishment. Punishment is living with one's crime and working to atone for it.

~Regal Bryant, Tales of Symphonia

* * *

To say Ragna was pissed would be an understatement.

He had been beaten on, lost an arm and way too much blood, and then had to deal with the fact that his little sister has suddenly gone even more nut-so than Jin with his brother complex. Add to the fact that Terumi was _still not dead_ and you got a very mad Grim Reaper.

Noel's new and odd stalking habit didn't help matters.

"God dammit, would you stop that?" The silver haired man snarled as he spun around. Tao 'meow'ed in confusion as said duel gunner squeaked from her hidden place. "Noel, just get out her, damn idiot."

The petite blond peeked up from the bush she had taken over to give him an appraising look. "Oh, but you seem mad. And I don't really want to fight…"

 _You seemed damn eager before_ was his unbidden thought. He nearly smacked himself for it. Noel was just as much as a victim at that time as him. All thanks to that god damn Terumi… Ragna sighed. "I didn't want to fight, idiot. If you want to come with me and Tao, just _ask_."

"Oh…Um, so can I come? I…don't really feel all that comfortable with Sector Seven…" Noel bit her lip before leaving the bushes fully. She was no longer wearing her NOL uniform. Now, she had donned a white sleeveless shirt that had a small red tie hanging from the collar. A sort of blue cape hung on her shoulders and was lined in gold. Noel still wore plain white gloves on either hand and was now wearing a blue skirt lined with gold. Her previous boots still clad her feet.

She shifted in place. "I would really like to come…but only if you're okay with it, Ragna." For some reason, the blond had begun to blush deeply.

Was she embarrassed? Ragna frowned at the thought but instead decided to address the current issue.

"Fine, you can come. But you better not pick any damn fights, got it?" Ragna muttered. Tao cheered suddenly, making the other two jump. They'd forgotten she was there…

"Yay! Lacking Lady is coming with Tao and Good Guy!" Noel twitched at the title but instead focused on Ragna. Don't pick a fight…

Ragna gave the cat a stern look. "The 'no picking fights' rule applies to you, too, Tao." She wilted at his scolding. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Noel smiling slightly. What was that about…?

The now trio continued walking through the forest. It was when said forest began to darken and become denser that Ragna paused. At this point…the forest should be getting clearer, not denser. Narrowing bicolored eyes, the red-clad man pulled out his sword. Noel, sensing his tension, slowly pulled out her own duel guns.

"What's going on, Good Guy?" Tao whined.

The white haired man growled softly. "I think we've walked into a trap."

"Hahahaha! Well, if you haven't gained a brain, Rags!"

Noel stiffened at his elbow as a green haired man wearing a nice suit appeared before them.

"Oh, and you even brought along little Noel Vermillion…Too bad you ended up as such a failure. You could have been so useful." Terumi waved an odd orb clutched in his hand around. "Of course, I have the perfect way to get rid of you. Want a present?" He made to throw the orb…but was stopped by something he forgot was there.

Tao stabbed her knife-claws into the orb. "Don't hurt Good Guy and Lacking Lady!" The man snarled and threw the cat away. She wasn't dazed for long and smashed into Terumi again. The shockwave blasted him away from the cat…

And straight into Ragna and Noel.

Normally, the silver haired man would have stabbed his sword into Terumi without hesitation. Of course, before he had a chance to, the orb that had been cracked open only moment before by Tao's attack was giving off an ominous light and exploded with bright rays the moment the green haired man slammed into the duo.

The blinding flash of light soon faded to nothing…

* * *

Rita Mordio was not having a good day.

She had just recovered from a rather bad illness only to have almost every single one of the adults in Adios scorn her for her 'weakness.' Rita had been forced to grit her teeth and deal with the idiots. Thankfully, now that she was given some time out for research, she could take out some of her frustrations on the monsters.

They never knew what hit them.

Stomping down the hill was probably not the smartest idea. There were a lot of monsters in the area and they would no doubt enjoy a tasty Mage treat. Like they were currently trying to do. Of course, they, like the brunette mage, were soon distracted by an almighty crash and a blinding flash of light somewhere in the forest below. Rita blinked.

"What the hell?"

Discarding the half beaten to death monster in her grip, Rita ran the rest of the way down into the dense forest. She dodged her own surveillance equipment and stepped down a familiar path.

It wasn't long until she found the source of the odd light.

A young white haired man in all red… and a young woman in a blue and white ensemble.

"Again. What the hell?"

Ragna groaned softly. He ached all over and his left arm was pulsing from the pain. Damn, why couldn't it be like his right arm and have no feeling in it? This sucked ass.

"Oh, so you finally woke up, huh?"

…Why did he feel like he had just met someone that was just like Kokonoe?

He cracked open his eyes and stared at the speaker. To Ragna's faint surprise, it was young brunette girl clad in reds, yellows, and whites. She adjusted the goggles on her head as he stared. "What're _you_ looking at?"

Oh, god, it was a miniature Kokonoe.

"Ragna!"

A white blur collided with his chest. Ragna groaned after he got his air back and pushed the bundle off of him. It turned out to be Noel. "The hell? Are you _trying_ to kill me?" Noel apologized swiftly. Behind her the girl scoffed and muttered that the blond shouldn't give in so easily.

"I was really worried." Noel confessed. "You were all bloody and your coat was ripped up…One of the mages here fixed your stuff up but it's still being washed…mine too!" Her gesture towards her body drew the silver haired man's attention to her clothes. She was wearing only a simple button up shirt, sleeves rolled up—

"God dammit, Noel, why are you in here with only that on?!" Ragna demanded, covering his eyes.

Noel gasped. "Oops! I'll go to the other room...um, Miss Rita? Could you tell Ragna where we are and what happened please while I get my clothes on?" The brunette gave a grunt of acceptance as the elder blond disappeared into the other room.

The girl, who was apparently named 'Rita', scowled at him. "I'm gonna be brief. I found you and Noel collapsed out in the forest. You were bleeding all over the place and blondie was barely awake. I had to use _three_ apple gels on you to keep you from bleeding out.

"I sent a message to Aspio and got a carriage to come bring the three of us back here. When we did, they took your clothes and Noel's. They're still repairing them so…" Rita shrugged. "You may not get them back soon."

Ragna frowned. Damn, that coat was a freaking heirloom, dammit. Fucking Terumi….

Wait.

Terumi.

"You said me and Noel were the only one there?"

Rita nodded.

"No green haired assholes?"

She raised an eyebrow at the insult but shook her head.

"Damn." Ragna cursed. "Terumi…"

"I'd ask." Rita drawled. "But I have a feeling I don't want to know. In any case, you're in Aspio, the Mage City of the Empire. You two from the capital or something?"

"Oh, no."

They turned to Noel who had returned with a pair of pants on. "We're not from the capital. Um….We were from a really small town out in the mountains…but it's…gone now."

Rita crossed her arms. "Barrier Blastia got ruined, huh, and couldn't afford to keep the city up and running, huh?" Noel nodded. "Too bad. I'd like to have gone there, especially with that odd Blastia you're got, Silver Hair."

"Blastia? This is a grimoir—" Noel smacked Ragna on the head.

"Miss Rita, Ragna and I have to speak. Is that okay…?" With a light frown, the mage nodded and left the room.  
Noel huffed slightly at the angry look on Ragna's face. "The hell was that for, idiot?"

The younger placed her hands on her hips. "While you were passed out, I've been looking around to find out where we are. And I think we're in another world." At the deadpan look on Ragna's face, Noel puffed out her cheeks. "I'm serious! I think that weird orb that Hazama—Sorry, Terumi had is what brought us here when it exploded!"

"Tao isn't here. And neither is Terumi!"

Noel frowned. "That's just it…Maybe Terumi ended up somewhere else? And Tao wasn't close enough to us to be caught in the blast. So, obviously, everyone in the blast ended up here!"

Ragna scowled but made no more arguments. The young woman's theory did make sense.

"Well, where the hell is 'here' anyway?"

"Um, someplace called Terca Lumireis. And we're in the city of Aspio, which is a city of mages. Sort of like Nine, one of the six heroes." The blond bit her lip.

He closed his eyes. "Fan-fucking-tastic. We're in a different world where we don't know a damn thing and Terumi is somewhere…Somewhere in a world that can't really deal with him." Noel squeaked slightly at the implications of that statement.

* * *

"So, you're Commandant Alexei, are you?"

The man spun around on the balls of his feet. "Who's there?" A soft laugh echoed in the halls. "How dare you enter this place, you filth…"

"Now, now." A man appeared before him. "No need to be so mean! Why, I'm only here to give you some advice…" Green hair peeked out from beneath a simple black hat. Amber eyes shined. Alexei frowned.

"My name is Terumi Yuki…But you can just call me Hazama to all those who ask." He stepped forward, a wicked grin on his lips. "And I can help you get what you want."

Alexei's eyes widened.

Terumi's grin grew wickeder.

The duo shook hands.

_My, this world could be very fun, now couldn't it?_

* * *

Prologue

Ars Magus and Blastia

END

* * *

_ **NOL PROFILING** _

_**Ragna the Blood-edge** _

_A high class NOL criminal with silver hair and duel colored eyes. His red coat and huge sword are his trademarks along with his wicked temper. Can be rather soft around the former NOL Lieutenant, NOEL VERMILLION._

_**Noel Vermillion** _

_A former NOL Lieutenant. She is now considered a criminal by the NOL and was last seen traveling with Sector Seven members. Uses duel guns for deadly accuracy. Also has a soft spot for RAGNA THE BLOOD-EDGE._

_**Captain Hazama (Terumi Yuki)** _

_A NOL Intelligence Captain. He was last seen pursuing the criminal RAGNA THE BLOOD-EDGE. Currently MIA. He uses short daggers as his main weapon of choice._

* * *

_ **IMPERIAL KNIGHTS PROFILING** _

_**Rita Mordio** _

_A Mage living in Aspio. Very talented despite her young age. Recently took in a pair of vagrants from one of the many towns that fell apart during the Great War._

_**Commandant Alexei** _

_The Commandant of the Royal Imperial Knights. He recently hired an advisor, HAZAMA, for all affairs. Greatly skilled with the sword._


	2. Mordio and Lowell

No one can stand before the agent of justice, Tokunaga!

_I don't know about 'Justice'._

**I think 'evil' is more like it**

~Anise Tatlin, _Luke Fon Fabre_ , & **Guy Cecil** , Tales of the Abyss

* * *

The house of Rita Mordio was relatively clean, mostly due to the futile efforts of one of the members of the household's attempts to keep it as such. Dust could still be seen floating around and sitting on some of the high tower of books and papers. Rita Mordio herself was curled up and snoring happily on the bed next to one such set of towers.

She snorted, swallowed a large amount of dust, and began to cough. Startled, she jerked up and rubbed at her eyes. "What's goin` on…" The brunette mage grumbled, glancing around. She blinked in surprise when she noted that her two house mates were not currently inside.

Deciding to get up, Rita sneaked past the towers of books to the main hallway. "Ragna?" She called out. "Noel? Don't tell me you're not here!" There was no answer, so she assumed that they weren't.

Pausing at the note board, she rolled her eyes lightly at the sight of their notice. It said simply that they were currently not in the house and were picking up some things in the marketplace of Aspio. The note also mentioned that there was a letter of request for her in the mail and that she should probably check it out.

The brunette, actually taking their advice for once, snatched the letter up and read through it. She frowned deeply at the mention of a damaged blastia. Apparently, there was a water blastia going crazy in Zaphias that needed attention. She had been requested by the locals to take care of it.

Sighing, she nodded to herself. "Might as well check out what they could have done to mess with the poor thing."

* * *

Ragna did his best to pretend he wasn't currently massaging his temples. He had a headache and the reason was the blond haired, emerald eyed woman currently bartering for goods. This was why he had told her to save her money instead of putting it towards Rita's research funds.

Finally, he had enough and got between the two. "Look, here's the damn money, just take it!" The silverette glared when the merchant opened his mouth to argue. It shut him up immediately. Snagging a hand around the bang's handle, he used his other hand to drag Noel off.

Once they had exited the marketplace, he shot Noel a slightly dirty look. "The hell were you thinking? I keep telling you we need to keep our god damned money to ourselves! How else are we going to track down Terumi and kick his ass until he tells us how to get back?!" She looked down, a guilty look crossing her face. Ragna stifled a groan. He absolutely hated it when Noel cried. "H-hey, don't cry, dammit. Look, let's just head back to the house and wake the brat up. She's probably still asleep, knowing her…."

Thankfully, for the man, Noel wiped away her tears. "O-okay. You're right. We should go and see Rita…" The duo headed down the main road that splintered off to Rita's humble house. Ragna opened the door first and called out to the mage; there was no answer.

"Don't tell me she's not here, now." The silverette frowned as Noel stepped passed him to look at their notice board.

Noel winced slightly. "She left for that job she got. I'm guessing she got up a little after we left…" Ragna groaned again, irritated by the 'brat's sudden departure.

"So basically, we're here alone. Great." The ex-criminal went to what they called his room and collapsed on his bed. "Tch, she'll probably be back in a couple of days, complaining about people who don't treat Blastia right, again." Noel stifled her giggles before sitting down at the foot of the red clad man's bed.

"We should be thankful, though." He gave her a confused look. Noel blushed. "W-well, if we hadn't met here, we'd have no idea where we were and we wouldn't have these modified clothes." She raised her arms to show off said outfit.

Her original outfit had almost completely vanished, replaced by one created in the world they currently resided in. She wore a top that was similar to Rita's own: Except it did not go past her hips, as Rita's did. It was also mainly blue with white and red accents. She wore fingerless gloves that began at her elbows. Noel had managed to salvage her black skirt from her ruined clothes and also wore a blue cape that was similar to her original. Red tassel that reached her ankles from their attached points on the back of her cape at either shoulder. Her blond hair was tired loosely at the base of her neck and dark blue stockings reached mid-thigh. Her boots that she had once worn with a NOL uniform still clad her feet.

Ragna, on the other hand, hadn't changed much. His silver hair had been cut somewhat shorter, due to Noel's insistence on it. His red jacket had been expertly patched up and now had a dark red, almost black hood. Around his waist was a piece of red fabric that, on the back, kept his sword close to him. He had gotten a new sleeveless black under shirt and kept his original gloves. His steel toed boots still cad his feet.

He sighed. "Do I have to remind you that _my_ clothes were hardly touched?" Noel blushed and then stuck her tongue out at the silverette, which caused him to shake his head in fond annoyance.

The two sat in silence before Noel straightened, her eyes giving off a curious light. Ragna eyed her warily.

"I've never asked, but I always wondered why you were just called 'Ragna'. I mean, you have to have a last name besides 'Blood-edge', right?" Noel tipped her head to the side. The silverette looked away but said nothing. She winced. Had she asked something that she shouldn't have?

Unfortunately, this was true.

Because of this one question, Ragna avoided her for nearly two days before she managed to corner him. "Look, I'm sorry for asking a question you obviously don't want to answer. I was just curious, okay? So please stop ignoring me." She gave him a rather over the top sad look.

Had it been anyone other than Noel (or Tao, but who's counting?), Ragna would have blown the off. Instead, he did something that startled the younger blond. "Technically, my last name would be 'Mercury'."

Noel blinked, surprised. 'Mercury'… "What do you mean by 'technically'?"

"It was my foster mother's last name." He explained, not looking at her. "She…died when I was a kid. I never knew my birth parents." Silently he stuffed his hands in his pockets with a deep frown, still not looking at her.

The blond furrowed her brow. "But that would mean…" Understanding lit her face up. "Major Kisaragi was adopted into the Kisaragi family when he was…12? But then…" Noel tried to peer up into Ragna's face. "….I think I get it. But I won't bother you about it anymore, okay?"

Ragna grumbled under his breath before slowly walking away.

Noel smiled weakly. Well, at least he wasn't ignoring her anymore.

* * *

Rita rolled her shoulder as she stepped into Aspio. That poor blastia…She closed her eyes as the guards around her shooed her into the city. Sidling past the older mages, Rita scowled. Why couldn't people just be gentle with the blastia in the first place? If they did, there wouldn't be as many problems for the mages to fix.

She stopped outside her house, eyeing it warily. Something seemed off…

Opening the door, she peeked in before groaning. The towers of books and papers that had been scattered throughout the home were now sitting against the walls of the hall. Frowning, she stepped through the threshold and into the house. Almost instantly, Noel walked out into the hall. "Hello, Rita. How was your job?"

The mage grumbled. "Bad. They were not treating that blastia very well. Poor thing…"

Noel gave a disapproving hum as Ragna slid into the hall, looking somewhat harried. Rita shot him a confused look before refocusing on Noel. "So what did you two do while I was away?"

"I just did some cleaning up and shopping every now and then. Otherwise, nothing. Ragna just did training and some reading…." Noel shot the silverette a scolding look. He rolled his eyes in return, seemingly annoyed.

Rita shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat, I suppose."

* * *

Almost a week later some rather odd activity was noted by the silver haired swordsman. Surprised and somewhat suspicious, he snagged Noel and headed down towards the city entrance. When they got there, it was to see a group of three be rejected from entering. Apparently, they didn't have the necessary papers to enter.

"Almost sounds like one of Hierarchical Cities…" Noel murmured from next to him. Ragna grumbled an agreement before leading her away to the marketplace. They _did_ have groceries to pick up, or else they'd probably starve.

Oddly, the Marketplace seemed more active than usual. Ragna frowned but quickly decided that it would be pointless. The duo walked passed many a market stall when they were stopped. Stopped by a trio of people.

The one who stopped them was a long haired man wearing mostly blacks, shades of dark purple, and gold lining. A young man, maybe in his early teens, stood next to him wearing an outfit of green, red, and white with his hair spiked up and out of his face. A young woman with chin length pink hair and a mainly white dress stood between the two, clasping her hands to her chest.

Ragna felt a strange sense of paranoia at the sight of the pink haired girl. He chalked it up to Kokonoe's attitude regarding him (That mad scientist…).

"Do you know where Mordio is?" The long haired man repeated.

Noel blinked but rushed to answer. "Mordio? She lives down the road from here. Why?"

The man hummed slightly while the pink haired girl answered. "Well, we need to ask him something is all." The boy snorted softly and Ragna gave them a wary look. What were they planning? Noel on the other hand took them by their word.

It was only after they left and the man had mumbled 'Probably meant 'he' when they said 'she'…' that Ragna noticed that the girl had said 'him' instead of 'her.'

* * *

Twenty minutes later found the duo headed down the road to their shared home. They had only just entered when they noticed that Rita had some company. Assuming it was the group from earlier, Ragna warily lead the way in.

Rita shot them a scolding look. "Jeez, you two just had to lead these guys here."

"What's wrong?" Noel frowned as she surveyed the four.

The brunette messaged her temples. "They're accusing me of stealing the blastia from my last repair job." Ragna scowled. Why had he known it was going to be a bad idea? "However!" She continued after noticing Ragna's scowl. "I've offered to prove I'm not the thief by going with them to find the true burglar."

Noel clasped her hands behind her back. "You're not going to leave without us, are you?"

"Why? Do you _want_ to come?" Rita raised an eyebrow, surprised.

Ragna crossed his arms. "Do you really think we're going to let you leave with a group of people we don't even know?" Rita blinked at the protective stance he had taken. Why was he…?

"We should all calm down." Noel tutted. "Instead of arguing, we should just group up and go find this thief that is framing Rita!"

"I-I agree!" The pink haired girl cried. "I can tell, Rita isn't a bad person."

The man sighed from next to the pinkette before nodding. "Alright, fine. You three can come with us to track down that guy…" Under her breath Rita muttered 'It should have been obvious I wasn't the thief….I'm a girl, not a man.' Ragna stifled his smirk.

The pinkette waved a hand to get their attention. "W-we should do introductions! I'm Estellise Sido Heurassein, but you may call me Estelle!" She poked the man's arm. "Come on, introduce yourself!"

He sighed. "Yuri Lowell." Yuri's eyes flicked over to the young boy who had, up till now, been silent.

"U-um, I'm Karol Capel, a member…Former member of the Hunting Blades guild."

Noel gave them a sunny smile. "It's nice to meet you! I'm Noel Vermillion, and this guy—" She touched Ragna's arm. "-is Ragna!" The silverette grunted at them. Estelle, for some reason or another, shot the red clad man a nervous look. "Don't worry, he's nicer than first glance." She assured them. While Karol looked reassured, Estelle's face still held that nervous expression.

"We've got another person with us." Yuri said conversationally. "He's not here right now, but you'll get to meet him on the way out. How long will you—"

"Wait one second!" Noel declared. Ragna scooted away, recognizing the determined look on her face. "It's getting late and I insist that we stay here for the night!" Yuri opened his mouth to argue but Noel's eyes flashed menacingly. "We. Are staying. Here!" To everyone, even the man in question's, surprise, Yuri moved back

Rita sniggered. "Never argue with Noel."

* * *

"Oi, Brat, don't make me kick you out of bed." Ragna grumbled as he jabbed the mage in the cheek. The brunette grumbled, waved away his hand, and was promptly tossed out of the bed. Rita looked up and glared fiercely at him until he left the room to allow her to dress.

When he left, he moved on to the kitchen where he saw Noel attempting to start letting out a scream of horror, the silverette moved forward, knocked herhand saway from the food and said quickly, "Don't cook, I've got it."

She huffed. "You're always cooking though!"

Ragna sighed. "I _like_ cooking, Noel. Now let me handle it. Go and wake up our visitors." She perked up at the mention of their three visitors before leaving the room to do so. The man let out a breath of relief.

By the time the others returned, breakfast was done and served. The group seemed to adore his cooking and the silver haired man looked away, his cheeks taking an ever light shade of pink. Noel hid her smile. Ragna really did like it when people praised his cooking, huh?

After breakfast was done and cleaned up, Yuri nodded once. "It's time to go, our fourth member is probably waiting for us." Ragna grunted his agreement and the other two from the household nodded. Estelle clapped her hands, though she kept away from Ragna, and lead the way out.

It didn't take long for them to leave the city, if only because they were now allowed to leave through the main entrance. Apparently, the trio had snuck in through a secret passage. Rita seemed to know exactly what they were talking about so Ragna and Noel didn't question it.

When they found their previous camping spot, Rita stopped, staring in confusion at the other three's fourth member. Noel squealed and leapt over to the member. Ragna snorted and shook his head in amusement. Why wasn't he surprised?

Their fourth member barked in excitement and happily accepted Noel's pets once the member saw Yuri's look of approval. "This is Repede." Yuri smirked. "He's our fourth member."

* * *

**_CURRENT PARTY_ **

**Ragna**

TITLE: _Blood-Edge_

-A Famous Criminal who has accidently ended up in another world. How terrible.

Level 23

**Noel Vermillion**

TITLE: _Vargant Gunner_

-A NOL Traitor, she now relies on the one she had originally been chasing.

Level 21

**Rita Mordio**

TITLE: _Genius Researcher_

-A brilliant Mage of Aspio, she doesn't take NO for an answer.

Level 20

**Yuri Lowell**

TITLE: _Downtown Boy_

-Jobless? Naw, he's just taking care of the Lower Quarter.

Level 21

**Estelle**

TITLE: _Castle Healer_

-A Noblewoman who lives in the castle…and can heal?!

Level 20

**Karol Capel**

TITLE: _Young Hunter_

-A member of the Hunting Blades. Sssh, he's hunting rabbits!

Level 19

**Repede**

TITLE: _Man's Best friend_

-Or more specifically, Yuri's best friend.

Level 21

* * *

**_IMPERIAL KNIGHT PROFILING_ **

**_Yuri Lowell_ **

A former knight, he currently lives in Zaphias and makes life a living hell for the knights stationed there. Is currently wanted for the supposed kidnapping of LADY ESTELLISE.

**_Estellise 'Estelle' Sidos Heurassein_ **

Princess of the Empire, she has escaped the castle by following the 'Vagrant', YURI LOWELL. Trained in the art of the sword and healing magic.

* * *

**_GUILD FILES_ **

**_Karol Capel_ **

A former member of the Hunting Blades, he uses a hammer to great effect. He has been in many guilds and is often ridiculed for this.


	3. The Ruins of Shaikos

* * *

To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.

~George MacDonald

* * *

"Hmph. Now are we going to get going or what?"

It seemed that Yuri, Estelle, and Karol had forgotten Rita's condition. Said condition had been to go to the ruins known as Shaikos, or else she would not go with them anywhere. Yuri seemed irritated by this fact and the two fell into an argument that, for some reason or another, made Estelle giggle. Ragna just rolled his eyes.

How childish.

Now that we're a little caught up, the group agreed with Rita's sentiment and they headed out on to the path that, according to the mage, would lead them there. Along the way, the trio who had joined Yuri's group got to show off their skills against monsters that attacks them.

"That's pretty cool." Karol finally expressed, eyeing Ragna's blade.

The silver haired man grumbled, dropping a hand on the Blood Scythe. Noel clasped hand over her mouth after she replaced Bolverk in their holsters. Estelle smiled before turning her eyes to Noel. "I'm curious, I've never seen a weapon like that. They're almost like two pistols…but Pistols have to be reloaded. What are they?"

Noel touched a hand to her chin, thinking. "Well…Bolverk are Dual Guns. They can't function properly without both halves. They also use…concentrated Aer as bullets instead of actually bullets. I means I don't have to ever reload." Estelle clapped her hands in understanding.

Rita stopped suddenly. Following her example, the rest of the group stopped. The mage spread out her arms and said, "This is Shaikos Ruins."

The ruins seemed to belong to a formerly large and beautiful city. This evident from what was left of several gorgeous statues and the still functioning fountain. Most of the silver-gray stone was untouched, though that which was had been had vines and moss grown across them.

"It's pretty." Noel smiled brightly while Rita coughed into her hand, looking away in embarrassment.

Estelle frowned. "There doesn't seem to be any Imperial Knights around." Repede stepped forward and began to sniff an area of the tiled floor that had been torn up to expose the firm dirt.

"These footprints are still fresh…" Karol murmured. "There's a lot of them, too."

Yuri followed Estelle and Noel as they stepped forward to the rest of the group. "Which means it's either the Knights, the Thieves, or both."

Ragna snorted as he stepped forward. "That doesn't narrow it down at all."

"True…But some of these footprints must be Flynn's!" Estelle cried, clasping her hands.

"Could be." Yuri nodded to her as Rita and Ragna turned to the main path that had foot prints spread throughout the occasional dirt patch.

Rita shot the other five a scolding look. "Come on! Over here, now."

Yuri smirked and turned away slightly. "I see." He shot her a look over his shoulder. "So first you get us alone in the dark and then you zap us."

While Ragna looked irritated and Noel hurt by the accusation, Rita smirked in return as she placed a hand on her hip. "Hmm, 'ZAP'…I like the sound of that."

"Hey!" Karol looked startled. "What's that supposed to mean? W-why are you smiling like that?"

"Stop teasing them." Ragna grumbled as Estelle pleaded with everyone just to get along. Rita shot Ragna another smirk before they all gathered away and headed out into the ruins. Once they came to the fountain, Noel leaned over and peered down before getting up to stand on the edge of the fountain to look up at where the water was coming from. "What are you doing?" Ragna questioned.

Noel glanced at him once before returning to what she was doing. "How is the water coming through? Why is able to do it? I don't understand, these are ruins." The silver haired man reached forward, snagged her wrist, and pulled her down from the fountain.

Yuri on the other hand was voicing his confusion at not seeing anyone else as of yet. "Maybe they're further in?" Estelle suggested.

"How far in?" Yuri grumbled, not really wanting to go too deep—Obviously still untrusting on Rita and her two companions.

Karol frowned. "Other than those foot prints from earlier, it doesn't look like anyone's been here."

"Did the information about the underground get out…?" Rita mumbled to herself.

Estelle tipped her head to the side questioningly. "Underground?"

The brunette turned to the pinkette, removing her hand from her chin. "In the past few months, an entrance to an underground area had been uncovered. Only a handful of mages are supposed to know about it…" _Which explains why she didn't tell us_ , Ragna thought to himself.

"But it's okay for us to know this?" Yuri raised an eyebrow.

She turned away in a huff. "I don't have much choice if I'm going to clear my name, right?" Rita walked away and Noel hurried after her. Ragna lagged behind, listening in on Yuri's mumbled of 'Clear your name, huh…'

Noel tipped her head to side as she saw a deep scratch across the ground. "What's this scratch from?" She questioned even as Karol came up to investigate it.

"It's not like I would've minded letting the thieves have the above ground after we'd finished excavation, but it's definitely a good thing we came here when we did." Rita placed a hand on her chin.

Karol looked up. "Well, we better follow them, right? So we need to move this…" The male brunette eyed the statue warily, like it was going to hit him. Karol ran to the opposite side and tried to do so…but failed horribly.

Yuri, apparently thinking it was depressing to watch, moved forward to help. "Put your shoulder into it." The statue began to move, but Ragna was irritated by how slowly it was doing so. Shoving his way in between the two, he left the other two behind as he pushed the statue away from the entrance.

The other gaped at him as the silver swordsman patted away any dust that had settled on his gloves. "T-that was amazing!" Estelle cried, shocked. Ragna grunted an acknowledgement before the large group set off down the stairs into the underground ruins.

* * *

"So, Ragna, Noel, how did you meet Rita?"

"That? Tch, got our asses handed to us by monsters."

"Well, what Ragna said, except we were trying to find a place to stay for the night."

"So you were traveling?"

"Oh, yes, we were heading to Zaphais. Our hometown was lost because the Barrier Blastia malfunctioned."

"I see…That must have been horrible."

"I suppose…It could've been worse."

"How so?"

"I might not have ended up with Ragna~!"

"W-what the hell are you talking about?!"

"Heheh, you two are so cute."

* * *

Once down Estelle looked around in amazement. "This is my first time in a ruin." The underground area was a huge cavern. Sunlight filtered in through small open sections in the top of the cavern. At the bottom of the cavern there was a deep lake of water. Ragna muttered to Noel that 'she found the area she was looking for.'

"Be careful." Rita scolded. "It's slippery down there." Yuri glanced at her from out of the corner of his eyes. The brunette glared. "What're you looking at?"

He grinned. "I'm just surprised. You're actually a nice person." Noel frowned as if to say 'You didn't figure that out earlier?'

"I should've known it would be a pain to bring you along." She looked way, her cheeks turning an ever light shade of pink. "I should've just come alone…"

"But what if you were attacked? I hate it when you come back to the house and you have injuries that all I can do about is wrap them up." Noel frowned. Rita huffed slightly before walking down the path away from the group.

Estelle hummed softly. "Do you always go to research ruins alone?"

"Yeah."

"And you get injured a lot, if what Noel said earlier is true…" Estelle gave her a concerned look. Rita blushed again.

She sucked in a breath. "There are always risks if you want to do something." Ragna muttered his agreement: He had way too much experience with that. The brunette walked off ahead of them.

"Rita is amazing…" Estelle murmured. "She just comes out and says what she means."

Yuri nodded. "She knows what she wants." Ragna muttered something that sounded like; 'More like she enjoys being blunt…'

The two finished their discussion and the group hurried after the grumbling mage. Several battles began and were quickly ended by Ragna all but curb-stomping the monsters. Yuri came second in the 'Most Badass Curb-stomper' contest that, for some reason or another, the two men had started. Rita expressed her exasperation at their attitude by firmly planting her foot in both of the men's own.

"Morons," was all she had to say as Yuri and Ragna clutched their now throbbing feet.

They traveled some distance before they come across a blastia that was not currently active. Karol voice his confusion as to why it was just lying around. "The mages in Aspio don't know yet." Rita answered. "We're still researching that."

"Is there any aque blastia lying around…?" Rita glanced at Yuri out of the corner of her eye as the man kneeled down next to her.

She stood. "There are no cores in any of them." Estelle said as Rita walked away. Karol groaned and voiced his utterly upset opinion on that. Rita paused with her back to them.

"Blastia aren't excavated with their cores and bodies together." Noel nodded in understanding from where she stood next to Repede, lightly petting his head. Along conversation that Ragna nearly completely tuned out went on. When it was over, Noel pulled lightly on his sleeve.

"Yeah, Noel?"

The blond frowned at him. "You weren't paying attention at all were you?" Ragna averted his eyes in an attempt to seem innocent. It didn't go very well.

They moved on, with Noel huffing at her 'partner's' attitude, when they came across a bronze blastia that still had a brilliant blue core. "This one still has a core!" Karol cried, surprised by the sight of it. Rita, rather suddenly, turned on Yuri and demanded he shoot it with the Sorcerer's Ring.

"A ring? It looks kind of like a blastia…" The long haired man muttered as Ragna peered at it over his shoulder. Yuri was right, the 'Sorcerer's Ring' did look like a blastia. Estelle closed her eyes and said something that sound exactly like something you'd hear from a textbook.

Rita crossed her arms. "That's not quite right. This blastia ring is used to power other blastia." The brunette shot the princess a confused look. "How did you even know that?"

"Oh! The books in the castle mentioned that this ring kind of acts like a key…" The pinkette smiled happily.

"Castle?"

"So all I do is point it, right?" Yuri interrupted. Ragna narrowed his eyes at him. What exactly was he trying to hide about that?

Rita looked at him. "Just aim it at the Blastia core, yes." The brunette shooed the others away. "Face your target and shoot." She gestured to the blastia as the group moved out of the way. "There's a limit to its range though…Go ahead, try it."

Yuri stepped forward and did so. To the surprised of everyone, the blue core lit up like a lantern. There was an odd rumble and group turned just as Karol cried: "W-what is that?" In the passage they had just left a large rock creature walked back and forth as if on patrol.

Ragna cursed. Those things weren't anything like the weaker monsters wandering around. "That's a sentinel…to take care of unwanted guests." Rita answered Karol.

"Alright, let's keep our eyes open and keep moving." Yuri ordered.

The ex-criminal rolled his mismatched eyes and resisted his urge to retort.

Of course, Rita wasn't as good at resisting as she said, "Are you sure? What if I'm just luring you deeper into the ruins to I can 'zap' you?"

"…I'm starting to think I'd rather try my luck with the golem."

* * *

"That ring is really handy!"

"I have to agree, Miss Noel."

"M-miss Noel? You don't have to call me that, Karol!"

"O-oh, but it'd be rude to call you anything else a-and—"

"No, I insist you call me just Noel!"

"I can't just do that!"

"Yes you c—Ragna?"

"Stop. Just stop. It's sickening how you two are arguing about something like that…"

* * *

Rita had handed over control of the Ring to Yuri who, as the one leading the group currently, took it without complaint. As they moved along, Yuri activated severely more blastia which lead to both fights and a way to continue on.

After what seemed to be hours, they made it to a small sort of courtyard with bits of debris scattered here and there. At the other end of the courtyard form the group was a massive Golem. It has little designs carved into its chest and large mallet-esque arms.

Ragna narrowed his eyes as the group exclaimed their surprise. Why did he suddenly have a very bad feeling….?

"Is this a blastia too?" Karol questioned.

Yuri sighed. "But I want is the aque blastia…not…not this puppet." Noel flinched slightly at the word, flashes of recent memories attempting to come to the surface. Ragna touched her arm lightly with his hand: He didn't want her to have some sort of identity attack right now.

"What are you doing?!" Rita scolded. "Don't just go poking him like that!" Yuri shrugged then walked away from the creature. Rita got closer to 'him.' "Now, if I can just analyze him, I can finish my anima formu—ha?" She cursed. "His blastia core is missing!" Rita glower in a rage.

Repede rather suddenly spun around and began to growl as she did so. Ragna turned as well, pulling out Blood-Scythe. "Rita, it looks like one of your friends is here." Yuri quipped.

"Oi! Who're you?" Rita scowled as she came around the golem.

The white clad man trembled. "M-me? I'm just a blastia r-researcher from Aspio!"

"That's real convincing." Ragna scoffed.

"A-and just who're you?! This place is off-limits you know!" The man continued as if no one had spoken.

Rita snorted. "And you just gave yourself away. There's no way you're from Aspio if you don't recognize me." Noel nodded: Only people who're brought into Aspio don't know who Rita was. Karol muttered under his breath about Rita's 'humble' attitude.

The man scuttled away from his hiding spot above them and over to the golem. "Ugh, this job is full of problems." He muttered, just loud enough for them to hear, as he shoved a blastia core into the golem. "If it's not the Knights, it's a bunch of kids…"

"Oi, jackass! Only half of us can be classified as a 'kid'!" Ragna snarled at him. He was again ignored. The man twitched; He was not going to take this guy's attitude lying down. "Oh, you're going to pay for that…."

"It's moving!" Karol cried just as it smashed an arm into Rita. The mage went flying into a wall and with a heavy 'THUMP', landing against said wall. Estelle ran over and quickly healed the brunette, obviously concerned about Rita.

"W-wait a minute!" Rita grabbed Estele's wrist. The pinkette gave a squeak of surprised. "How'd you—" Ragna rolled his eyes slightly. Right now really wasn't the time for that! He dodged as the creature slammed both of its overly large hands to the ground.

Karol yelled at them, echoing Ragna's own sentiment. "Guys! Now really isn't the time to play around! Come and help us!" Rita ran over and said she was going to chase after the man—But Noel shot her down by jabbing a finger at the golem.

She groaned and started charging up a spell. Estelle ran over to Yuri's side. Said man 'hrmphed'. "Guess we have no choice but to play with the wind-up toy here." (Ragna was just thankful that Noel was too busy focusing on the golem to hear Yuri's comment.)

**_BOSS_ **

**_Goliath_ **

The group fell forward into combat. Karol yelled out that it was called 'Goliath.' Dodging a blow form one of its massive arms, Ragna jerked his blade to block another attack. This thing was a monster. Its existence was far worse than those of Lambda and Nu, because at least they could choose to do something themselves. This thing? Goliath had no choices at all…

All it could do was fight.

_Sound like anyone **you** know? _ A mocking voice that sounded like that bastard Terumi muttered from the back of his head. Ragna pursed his lips as he swept beneath the bumbling beast. Now was NOT the time for this!

Besides him, he could hear Noel's Bolverk going off in the golem's face every time it got too close. Ragna felt, for some reason or another, an overwhelming urge to smash Goliath's 'face' into the ground for even daring to try that.

Something 'broke' and when the creature tried to smash him against the wall, he barely budged. Yes, he felt the pain, but it was if he was glued to the ground. Jerking forward, Ragna smashed his blade precisely against the joint of Goliath's left arm. Jerking it out and feeling satisfaction at seeing gravel fall out like blood from an open wound, the silverette swiftly undid the clasp on the Blood-Scythe.

**_MYSTIC ARTE_ **

**_Black Onslaught!_ **

His once sword quickly became a long staffed scythe—which obviously explained its name—and Ragna slid it up straight through Goliath's damaged arm like it was butter. The next few seconds went quickly—The Blood-Scythe slice through Goliath's waist, right shoulder, and left leg. The next blow was Ragna's right arm becoming pitch black, red veins pulsing, which then grabbed Goliath.

Ragna's Scythe morphed so quickly back to its sword form it's like it never changed—and he stabbed it into the golem's gut. In seconds, the golem was slammed away from him and against the opposite wall. Rita shrieked in anger as his body returned to normal and the silverette stumbled a bit as the brunette smashed into him. "You idiot! You just irreparable damaged him!"

Noel face palmed in the background while the other four just stared blankly at poor, poor Ragna…

* * *

  
**Chapter 02**

**The Ruins of Shaikos**

**END**

* * *

Ragna received a new title: ' _Grim Reaper_ '!

-A Bringer of Death to all those who oppose him. Do not get in the way of what he wants, or else you shall become a dead man walking.

Noel is now level 22!

Rita is now level 21!

Yuri is now level 22!

Estelle is now level 21!

Karol is now level 21!


	4. Fire Brand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please listen to 'The Man' by Daisuke Ishiwatari while reading the fight at the end of the chapter--It makes it much better.

We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression.

~Confucius

* * *

"That's it. Its power supply has been cutoff." Rita shot Ragna a dirty look. "Not that it matters, of course." This was true, as Ragna had literally made the golem unable to move properly _with_ a blastia core. The silver haired man winced slightly at the mention of his mistake.

Karol and Yuri left without a word (though the former called for Rita to hurry). Rita grumbled but leapt down from the pile of destroyed golem parts. Estelle lagged behind. "What's wrong?" Noel questioned. The others turned to the duo.

"What about Flynn…?" The pinkette asked sadly.

Yuri sighed. "There can't be many knights running around if that guy in the cloak is hanging about."

Estelle looked up. "So you think Flynn is…"

"Not here anymore." Yuri shrugged. "Now come on!" Noel touched the pinkette's arms with a smile before the two followed the group out of the underground courtyard. Rita muttered something about an 'anima formula' as she stepped away from the area.

Karol scowled. "Is that why we were fighting that thing?!"

"Of course."

While Karol started on Rita (who just rolled her eyes), Ragna sighed. _Rita is way too much like Kokonoe…_

Yuri rolled his eyes as well. "Hey, that guy is going to get away if we don't get going like, right now." Ready to go now, the group moved out of the courtyard and down the hall that Noel said she saw the man go down. Repede back it up by sniffing the trail and barking his agreement.

Many fights later, Rita was glowering at the man with in utter rage. Ragna and Noel both stepped back, recognizing the look on her face. "How dare you think you can get away with stealing a blastia core like that?!"

"W-wah! S-stop, don't hurt me! I was told that I would get a really good price for any Blastia Cores I could find!" The white cloaked man wailed.

Yuri leaned forward. "You stole core from Zaphias, the Imperial capital, too, didn't you?"

"T-the capital?" The man shoots Yuri a somewhat confused look. "No way, not me!"

"Then maybe it was one of your friends!"

"Hey, clam down." Noel muttered to the swordsman. He either ignored her or didn't hear her, as he continued glaring at the man.

The man whimpered. "Y-yeah! It's that guy, Dedecchi!"

The dark haired man stepped close to Mr. Cloak. "Where'd he run off to?"

Estelle and Karol exchanged looks behind Rita. "He's probably picking up his money from his client right now." Yuri's eyes twitched and he demanded to know who this client was. "All I know is that he's somewhere in Torim Harbor! He was a huge bruiser with a scar on his right cheek and a missing eye! That's all I know, I swear!"

Yuri nodded slowly to himself. Rita now rounded on the man. "Where'd you steal that Sorcerer's Ring from?!"

"I didn't steal it!" He cried, insulted that the brunette would accuse him of that. "The client gave it to me!"

Rita glowered. "Liar! That's not something a boss of pickpockets could get his hands on!"

"I-I'm telling the truth!" The man cried, waving his hands around.

"This sounds big…" Karol muttered. "I wonder who could be behind it."

Yuri nodded slightly. "You got that right, Captain Karol. This doesn't sound like an ordinary group of thieves."

The man grumbled under his breath about something to do with Knights and Estelle automatically latched onto it. "Knights? Does that mean Flynn really was here?"

"Yeah!" The cloak around the man's feet fluttered angrily. "That stupid, damn knight!" Rita growled and smacked the guy around the chest with her foot. Noel sighed and brought a hand to her face: Rita was really mad.

Ragna frowned. "I think he's told us all he knows, brat." The silverette raised an eyebrow when Rita turned on him, ready to punch _him_ instead. Karol groaned as the man fell over. It seems he had been knocked out.

"The city guards will come pick him up later." Rita sniffed. Yuri nodded and followed the mage as she left. The rest of the group soon followed, though Ragna paused. He had heard something odd, like a voice. Was he imagining things? The swordsman shook his head and followed after the group.

* * *

"Oi, Rita."

"What do you want, Lowell?"

"Well, that's nice. Look, I was wondering why you trust those two so much. I mean, from the sounds of it, you only recently met them."

"….They're kind people. Even if Ragna is rough around the edges and Noel is sometimes too polite."

"If you say so, Mordio."

* * *

"Ragna, Noel, what are you two planning to do after this?"

"What do you mean, Rita?"

"I'm going to try and get with their group…There are some things I need to know…"

"Hmph. You think we'd let you go alone, brat? We told you before, we'll stay with you till the end."

"Exactly!"

"…Ragna…Noel…" _Blush_. "T-thank you."

* * *

When they arrived back in Aspio, the group split up, Rita to take care of the man from the ruins, Ragna and Noel to pick up some life bottles, and the rest vanished into thin air. Thanks to the money they picked up from fighting monsters (why did monsters even have it in the first place?), they managed to not only get a couple of a life bottles but a few apple gels as well. "Hopefully Rita won't label it as hers again." Noel had joked as they headed back to the house.

Ragna had actually snorted in amusement.

The moment they stepped into the house, they were surprised to see the other four still there. Noel frowned. "Where's Rita?"

Estelle turned to them. "She said she'd go and talk to the guards about that man from the ruins. Where did you go?" The pinkette asked curiously.

"Went to go buy some first aid supplies." Ragna grumbled as he shoved his hands into his pockets. Estelle hummed in understanding. Yuri sat up and was about to question them on _why_ they felt the need to get medical supplies when Rita stepped into the room.

She placed her hands on her hips, looking irritated. "I know I asked you four to wait for me, but you sure did make yourselves at home didn't you?"

"Sorry for suspecting you," Yuri said rather cheerfully as he fully stood up.

The brunette rolled her eyes. "What a heartfelt apology." She stepped slowly away from the man. "Of course, it ended up working out in the end for me, so I'll take it." Rita peers at her book shelf almost curiously, her gaze occasionally flicking to Estelle.

"Rita?" Noel and Estelle said at once. They glanced at each other briefly, surprised.

Yuri's eyes focuses on the mage. "Well…thanks for the hospitality."

Said girl raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Going so soon?" Ragna snorted to himself: The way she said that sounded far too much like flirting to him…

Wait.

She wasn't flirting with Lowell was she?

"We're kind of in a hurry, sorry." Yuri shrugged lightly.

Estelle bowed. "Thank you so much, Rita. It was really nice to meet you, but we have to go now." She bit her lip. "I'm going to thank you properly later, okay?" (Ragna stifled his sudden choking with his hand: _What_ had that girl said?)

She mumbled a soft 'okay' and group of four left the house. Noel turned on the brunette. "I thought you wanted to go with them?"

Rita cough. "I do."

"Then why are we just standing here?" Ragna drawled. The brunette blushed, glared at the silverette, and then stomped out of house. The man snickered slightly before following, Noel on his heels.

When the silverette and blond caught up the Rita, they heard her simple demand of 'I'm coming with you.' Karol looked startled. "Y-you're doing what?"

"Coming with you." Ragna answered for the brunette. "And if she is, so am I."

"And me!" Noel echoed, smiling happily at the group.

Yuri ignored the three. "So _this_ is why you told us not leave without saying goodbye."

Her lip quirked into a small smirk. "Yeah."

Karol blinks at her, utterly confused. Yuri questions whether or not she's allowed to leave just like that. Rita's excuse? She says that she wants to check out Halure's barrier blastia. Their return? It's already fixed.

Estelle, however, is ecstatic. "I've never had a friend my own age before!" She smiled happily as Rita began to stutter, obviously embarrassed. Noel hid her smile. "This going to be so much fun!" The pinkette bounced in place.

"Looks like you're stuck with us." Ragna smirked over at Yuri. The other man laughed slightly.

"Miss Mordio!" The group jumped and turned to see a young man in a dark purple cloak. He stopped a couple feet from the large team to catch his breath. Once he did, he jerked up straight. "M-miss Mordio! The Guards that started heading towards the Shaikos Ruins came back to report odd activity!"

Rita turned fully towards the elder. "What do you mean, odd activity?"

He panted. "Flashes of lights, what looks like an occasional strong gust of wind, and for some reason or another, the monsters are _running away_ from there." The brunette frowned and dismissed the cloaked man.

She turned to the group. "I suppose we couldn't possibly stop by the Shaikos Ruins and make sure that nothing bad is going on." Ragna grunted his agreement and Yuri frowned slightly…Rita rolled her eyes. "It's on the way to Halure, which is on the way to the port…Hardly that much of a detour."

Yuri sighed but agreed. Ragna, however, couldn't help but wonder exactly could be going on there…Nothing odd had been happening there in the few hours they had been in the ruins. Except for…That strange voice that only he had noticed.

The silverette narrowed his eyes.

* * *

"I wonder what could be going on over in the ruins to cause such weird things to happen…"

"I don't know, Karol…"

"Don't worry, Noel, I won't hold anything against you, seeing as there's no way you could know."

"Did anyone see anything? Anything at all?"

"I didn't, Yuri."

"Neither did I…I was too focused on my anima formula."

"…."

"…Ragna? Did you see something?"

"No. (It's not really a lie…I heard something, not saw.)"

* * *

Ragna threw an arm over his head as debris flew around the group. Yuri cursed from next to Rita, who was grumbling insults at whoever or whatever was causing this insanity. Estelle was sticking close to Yuri's back, Karol all but clinging to her side. Noel was swiftly and easily dodging whatever rocks or stones flew her way and Repede, who was almost as quick as the dual gunner, was right behind her.

As they moved toward the statue that covered the catacombs, Rita swung her whip around to destroy a large piece of debris hurtling toward them. "Tch!" She spun on her heel. "Get to the tunnels, it's probably safer unground!"

The others crowed their agreement. However, Ragna was eyeing a courtyard just beyond the stair cases. For some reason or another, it looked completely untouched. Almost as if the storm was going _around_ that courtyard…

He narrowed his eyes before splitting off from the group to investigate.

"Ragna!" Rita shrieked in rage as the red-clad man skittered and dodged between flying stones. Noel looked horrified before following him: There was no way in hell she was leaving her bastion of sanity alone in such a wind storm.

The rag-tag group they left behind all groaned before hurrying after the duo. Like Noel, they weren't about to let their comrades in arms be killed in a crazed wind attack. When they stopped in the courtyard, Estelle let out a cry of surprise.

The stone courtyard _was_ completely untouched. It was as if there was some sort of barrier preventing the winds from sweeping into the ruined area. "Like the eye of a tornado…"Noel murmured aloud, so all could hear.

Ragna, on the other hand, was warily eyeing the sword stuck in the very center of the 'eye'. Was it causing the storm? For some reason, he thought not.

Approaching the sword, he cautiously reached out to snag it.

Ragna didn't really except a strangely cloaked man to appear out of thin air, pretty much back hand him, and then disarm him by flinging the Blood-Scythe across the courtyard. "Who are you?" Yuri demanded, his dark eyes narrowing. "What do you want?"

If they could see his face, Ragna would have bet he was smiling. "Nothing much. I am merely here to test Ragna." The silverette grumbled angrily at the man. _What did he mean, 'test' me?_

And why did he have an odd feeling that Rachel had something to do with this?

Unfortunately, he didn't have much chance to ask, as the red-and-white clothed being raised a hand—and they were surrounded by a purple-blue barrier. Rita swore in confusion, as she had never seen anything like that before. The red-clad swordsman forced himself to his feet, about ready to fling himself towards Blood-Scythe, when he realized it was on the _other side of the barrier_.

Cursing, he had no choice but to grab the sword sticking from the ground in the courtyard. To his surprise, it briefly spouted flames before cooling down. Ragna mumbled something about 'light shows' when he was forced to dodge the man's Photon attack.

"Wha—there's no name on here!" Karol suddenly cried, looking annoyed and concerned at once. Rita cursed him out, scolding him for not even telling them what it _did_ say. "It just said 'That Man'!" The male brunette groaned.

Rita echoed it as Estelle cast'd a healing spell on Noel. Repede was just having difficulty just keeping up with That Man's speed. Yuri, on the other hand, was just watching Ragna and Karol's backs, as the two were being hit heavily by the Photon artes That Man was casting with a vengeance.

"This guy just doesn't quit!" Ragna cursed as he slid a 'Hell's Fang' across a flawless shield. Yuri crowed his agreement.

That Man seemed to severely enjoy trouncing them, because right now, that was exactly what he was doing. So far, only Ragna and Noel had seems to have any chance of keeping up and even then they were falling behind.

There was a sigh. "You have been relying too much on the power of that right arm of yours." That Man shook his cloaked head slightly. "You would do much better if you had not done so. However, maybe I can teach you a lesson?"

Ragna barely managed to block a strike aimed at his head. This sword was very different from Blood-Scythe, slim in comparison to the massive sword. While having a hilt, it was obvious it wouldn't be very useful to stop any blades from cutting into his arms.

Noel quickly side-stepped out of one of the attacks and shot at That Man's cloak. Sadly, her bullets only skimmed one of the four cloth flaps that looked like hands. Rita's fire ball arte managed to strike a hit and Karol's spin missed by a mile.

Yuri paused next to Ragna. "This isn't working." He mumbled to the silverette.

"I know. But what the hell are we supposed to do?" Ragna hissed back. Yuri opened his mouth, most likely to ask him to try his mystic arte (but he didn't know yet how to use it purposely), when Noel was slammed against one of the destroyed pillars.

Ragna cursed, bringing up the sword up to block another blow. He was then startled back by a 'Negative Gate' and had to run back to where Yuri had retreated. "Alright, you got a plan?"

"Originally I was going to suggest your mystic arte." Yuri muttered, eyeing That Man warily. "But now? I think if we can catch him off guard while he's casting…we might be able to finish it."

The silverette nodded before moving as quickly as possible to Noel to tell her the plan. Yuri split over to where Rita was being defended by Repede and Karol stuck by Noel and Ragna. Estelle was hanging back, her healing artes being spammed over the group over and over again.

Rita eyed That Man as he released a Photon that caused Ragna Noel, and Karol to split up. _Wait for it…Wait for it…_ She raised a hand above her head. "Now!"

Karol came in first, spinning like a top, right into the cloaked being. Following him was a spin kick and shot from Noel and Rita shot a Champagne at That Man. Next was a side step and kick to the chest by Yuri straight into Ragna. The silverette topped off their team combo by slashing the being, sprout of flames trailing after the blast.

Then, suddenly, he stopped. The group gasped for breath as they stared at the nonplussed man. "My, you've come together as a team quicker than I thought you would. Good for you!" The smirk in his voice made Ragna's eye twitch violently.

"Oi, Jackass!" Ragna snapped. "The hell was all that about?!"

That Man straight up ignored the silverette's demanded question. "You have passed my first test. You may keep Fireseal for so long as you may need it." And with a rather over the top bow, he vanished, taking the barrier and wind storm with him.

Ragna threw his arms into the air, irritation rolling off of him in waves as. "What the _hell_ is going on here?!" Fireseal was dropped to the ground next him as Noel snuck away to where Blood-Scythe was lying on the ground.

Yuri gave a weak shrug. "No idea. However, I think we should either get going to Halure or set up camp somewhere for the night…There's no way we're going to make it back to Aspio at this time."

The gesture he made towards the sky made them all glance towards the formerly-blue sky. Said sky was pink-orange as the sun was inching towards the horizon. The group groaned. Yuri grinned slightly. "Guess Camping is what we're going to do."

* * *

**Chapter 03**

**Fire Brand**

**END**

* * *

Ragna has obtained the sword 'Fireseal'!

Ragna has unlocked the arte 'Gun Flame'!


	5. Revelations and Port Towns

Humanity's foolishness knows no limit, but neither does their wisdom. History will determine the value of us humans and Gears.

\- Ky Kiske, Guilty Gear 2: Overture

* * *

"AAAARGH! Godaamit, Tager! What damn part of 'Find Ragna and Noel' do you find so difficult?!"

Kokonoe's pink ears were flat against her head as she glowered at the screen. She honestly didn't understand why he couldn't find the two. They had a trace on them…it's just that the two weren't moving an inch from the spot. That was, of course, the main reason why she was pissd at Tager. It should be obvious where they were!

There was a sigh from over the communication link. "I'm sorry, Kokonoe, but there just isn't any one here."

She let out her own sigh. To think this all happened because of that incident…

It had been a few weeks earlier when Taokaka had run in, with what little could be seen of her face conveying sadness and fear. It had been enough to worry Kokonoe, who had only ever seen the cheerful Kaka girl happy.

"What happened?" Kokonoe had demanded. Tao had wailed for a few minutes before being calmed down enough to speak.

She sniffed. "G-good Guy and L-lacking Lady….Green Guy made them disappear!" The cat eared hood shook as the Kaka girl cried again.

Kokonoe was honestly lost. Good Guy? Lacking Lady? Green Guy? Who the hell were they and why would their disappearance mean anything to her?

Makoto had run in seconds later, crying out that Noel had left their group and gone somewhere before noticing Tao in the room. "Um, what's going on?" The squirrel beast kin questioned. Kokonoe explained to her the entire situation. Once she was done, Makoto also began to look horrified, worried, and very concerned.

Okay, what was she getting from Tao's explanation that she freaking wasn't?

The beast kin sighed. "Don't you know? Lacking Lady is Noel, Good Guy is Ragna, and Green Guy is…Hazama, or Terumi."

_That_ had gotten Kokonoe's attention real fast.

After that, they had been searching for the two for many months. The signal beacon that Noel still gave out kept leading them around the same part of a dense forest. Add to the fact that Tao kept saying that 'Good Guy would never leave Lacking Lady alone!' with Makoto's own reassurances of this made Kokonoe certain that Ragna was with Noel.

Unfortunately, the signal had not left that spot for the entirety of the past few months, which meant either there was a problem with their system—unlikely—or somehow, Noel had _removed_ her beacon and left it in that very spot.

Kokonoe doubted this theory because Noel didn't even know about it. Maybe she should have shut it off, that way Terumi wouldn't have been able to track her down so easily.

Rubbing the palms of her hands against her eyes, the pink beast kin moved away from the computer to eye her chart. Each location that Tager had searched was marked on it. Taking a cap off a red marker, she marked the latest spot.

Behind her, the doors opened and she spun around, almost expecting another unwelcome visit from Relius Clover. However, to her immense surprise, it was Rachel Alucard, not the puppeteer.

"What the hell do you want, you freaking vampire?" Kokonoe sneered, irritation rolling off of her in waves.

Rachel let out a dainty 'hmph.' "My, you are quite busy today? Enough to be rather rude to me." The pinkette grit her teeth, one eye twitching slightly. She found Rachel to be exceedingly annoying.

"Look, I'm busy finding the fucking idiot Ragna and my agent Noel, I don't have time to deal with pampered vampires like you." Kokonoe made to turn away but paused. Why wasn't the twin tailed girl worried at all? "Oi, brat." The pink beast kin snapped. "Why the hell aren't you worried? Ragna and Noel have been missing for a few months!"

She gave Kokonoe an amused smile. "Why, I already know where they are."

* * *

Ragna rubbed his temples as they stepped down the path to Nor Habor. When they had gone to Halure, Rita had been shocked to see that their barrier blastia tree in bloom. They had received a letter from Flynn about possible dangers towards them and safety measures….along with a poorly drawn wanted poster of Yuri.

The silverette had laughed his ass off at it.

Not long after the letter, Rita dragged Yuri and Noel off to inspect the tree while Ragna, Estelle, and Karol were harassed by Imperial Knights. When Yuri and the others returned, a fight briefly broke out and soon enough, a group of assassins spotted them.

Thankfully, the group was able to escape by handing over the duty of getting rid of the assassins to the Knights.

Now, the group of seven was heading out west to the port town.

Unfortunately, they were stopped by Ehmead Hill. When Rita asked for confirmation, Karol trailed off, looking somewhat confused by something. "What's wrong, Karol?" Noel asked in concern.

"There was a barrier…Its gone now, for some reason." The male brunette said, staring at the sky with a wide eyed expression. _Stolen_ , was Ragna's thought, though he wasn't able to express it as Yuri questioned the intelligence of having a barrier in a place with no people.

Rita was unconvinced.

"Nan said It was only put here recently so…"Karol rubbed the back of his head, looking nervous.

Estelle picked up on the name in an instant. "Who's Nan, Karol?" Noel echoed her question, emerald green eyes wide with confusion.

He nervously looked away. "J-just a friend from the guild." _A-huh_ , Ragna thought sarcastically, _definitely_ just _a friend_.

"Hey! What're you doing?" Came a voice from ahead. Jerking out of his thoughts, he glanced up in realization that Rita had wandered off. She snapped at the man that she from Aspio and he calmed down in an instant. "Ah, you're from Aspio? Excuse me…I-I can't just let you do as you please, though, so just let me go and—"

She completely ignored him.

Harsh. Ragna's mismatched eyed flicked over to Yuri as he chuckled over the situation. "Wish I had some of her attitude." He said jokingly to the group.

Estelle's lips quirked. "I think you have plenty already."

"Hey, listen to this!" Karol pushed into the group. "It was like Bam! A spear went thunk! The Blastia went bang! And he flew off into the sky with a woosh!"

Yuri stared blankly at the kid. "Who did what how….huh?"

"I think I get it!" Noel clapped her hands. "Someone came, destroyed the blastia with a spear, and then flew away!"

"Exactly!" Karol grinned. "And they flew away on a flying dragon!"

The blond girl clapped her hands again. "That's really cool! I kind of wish I could of seen it…"

The dark-haired swordsman shook his head. "A human flying a Dragon? Impossible…."

"You never know." Ragna spoke up. "Stranger things have happened."

Karol nodded. "I thought it was impossible too, but a load of people here saw it happen!" He nodded to himself. "They say it was a 'Dragon Rider.'"

"Dragon Rider…" Yuri smirked slightly. "Well, the world's just full of surprises."

"HEY!" The group turned their heads towards Rita, who was now being manhandled by knights. "What do you think you're doing?! Let me go!"

Karol sighed. "There she goes again."

The brunette glowered at them. "There is something definitely wrong with this blastia formula!"

"There's nothing wrong at all." The man glared. "Perhaps you…"

"Who do you think I am?!" She shrieked in his face. He leaned back, startled.

He sighed. "I am well aware of who you are. The famed genius mage, correct? But surely, there are formulas that even you are unfamiliar with."

Rita hissed. "You can't use a weird formula like that! Think about the poor blastia!"

One of the men called to apprehend her scowled. "Stop gapping and help us catch her!" Karol attempted to help Rita escape…but it ended up with knights chasing after him and one of them recognizing Yuri's face (somehow). Because of that, the group of seven was seen racing out into the hills, leaving only the single knight collapsed on the ground, having been attacked by Repede and Noel.

Out of sight of the knights, they stopped catch their breath. "Tch, how annoying was that." Ragna hissed as he finally caught his breath. Estelle scolded Rita before Noel raised a hand.

They all turned their heads to see what she had to see. "I think…it was bound…to happen anyway…with Yuri there…."

Yuri huffed slightly at the implication. Rita on the other hand grumbled. "I couldn't…help myself…that blastia was so strange…"

Now, out of everyone, Yuri, Ragna and Noel were the one who caught their breath fastest. So, when Yuri questioned Rita without panting, it wasn't that strange. "Fishy might be an understatement." The brunette sighed.

"Well, our hands are full as it is, so keep us out of it, alright?" Yuri grumbled. Ragna and Noel both muttered to Rita to tell them about it later, once they had gotten to the Port Town. Karol finally showed up and made his way to the group.

After a quick discussion on where to go (Rita complaining about how dangerous it was to go down a Beast Path), they took off. There was a rather bad run-in with flowers where Karol ended up being stunned for a couple of hours and Rita was scolded for pushing him into the flowers.

"Just like a brother and sister." Noel muttered to Ragna in amusement. The silverette didn't answer, a strange look on his face. The blond frowned. What had she said this time?

After an hour of wandering around, they came across a large clearing. Ranga eyed it warily. Last time they had entered such a wide area they had been attacked by a strong creatue. "Don't tell me…"

Karol let out a yell. "That's one of the monsters that attacked Halure!" On the cliff above, eyeing them like they were lunch, was dark blue furred wolf. Its tongue slide back and forth around its mouth as if licking its lips.

"Survivor, huh?"

"We have to get rid of it, or it'll attack Halure again…" Rita hissed.

Ragna snorted. "Well, if you want it to attack us, there's no problem there. Because it's coming!" He pulled out Blood-Scythe and jumped forward to block an attack aimed at Estelle. The group, startled into action by the attack on the pinkette, drew their weapons and dove into the battle.

**_BOSS_ **

**_Gattuso_ **

Soon enough, they were all trying their best to dodge the slobbering jaws of the dark blue furred wolf. Estelle squeaked as she, and the rest of the group, realized that it was targeting her solely. For some reason or another, the beast decided that the pinkette would make a nice snack and was thus attempting to chop her down.

In conclusion, the party was scrambling to defend the princess from being devoured.

Had it been any other time, he would be freely practicing that arte he had used in the battle with That Man. However, with that beast roaring down on them ever five seconds, he didn't know if he could concentrate long enough to use it and get their enemy off their backs.

Noel let off a 'Chain Revolver' as the beast attempted a swipe at Estelle. It snarled in rage while Ragna ended up gritting his teeth. Was he really going to risk not using a possible arte that could get it off their backs?

Groaning to himself, the silverette slowly shifted forward. Hopefully, 'Gun Flame' could be used with Blood-Scythe, or else he'd be screwed to hell and back. As he forced himself to reach out with the blade and force energy through it, it burst weakly into flames. Swinging in the same motion as he would for the recently learned 'Demon Fang', the energy wave that came out was coated in fire…and caught Gattuso's pelt on fire.

The wolf didn't like the fire what so ever, as it seemed to very much like its fur. It yowled as it attemted to put the flames out. Rita didn't let it by firing off several 'Fireball' spells to keep the fire going. Repede, not wanting to get caught on fire as well, stuck close to Estelle. Karol threw caution to the wind as he spun on his foot and slammed the hammer into Gattuso's face.

Ragna grinned slightly to himself. _Yuri was going to have the final blow_ , he thought, even as the dark haired man streaked forward with his thin sword brandished. It slid deeply into the front leg and into the left side of the wolf's chest.

Blood bubbled from Gattuso's maw and the beast stumbled away from a slightly panting Yuri. The party moved back away from the slowly dying creature. It howled in anger before ending it with a whimper and keeling over.

Noel was the first to slowly approach, prodding Gattuso's body with a boot. After a couple of seconds, the blond nodded to herself. "Gattuso is dead." The group sagged in relief.

Now that their enemy was dead, the group was free to search for a way out of the cliff made clearing. "Oi! Over here!" Rita called out, finding an area that lead out of the forested zone. For nearly half an hour they wandered along the path, occasionally fighting off a monster that sniffed out the blood on their weary bodies.

After some time, they stopped, both due to wanting to rest and some awe. Before them was the large blue expanse known as the ocean and Estelle let out a sigh of 'beautiful.' Ragna and Noel stared in awe of the ocean for the mere fact that neither of them had seen the body of water except for in pictures due to how concentrated the seither was down at sea level.

"It's the ocean." Estelle clasped her hands, a smile on her lips as she stared towards the horizon. The water was so flat, it could pass as ground to walk on.  
Yuri shot Estelle an amused look. "I can see that…The wind feels great."

The pinkette moved her clasped hands behind her back. "I've seen if it picture but never like this…" Her smile turned into a happy grin.

"Not many people travel outside of the barriers so…" Karol trailed off.

"So people normally don't get to see these types of things." Ragna finished with the lightest of nods.

The dark haired swordsman sighed slightly. "Guess I really was living in a small world…"

Rita 'hmm'ed from behind them. "That's a rare moment of sincerity coming from you." Karol shot her a teasing grin and mumbled 'you haven't seen it before either, right?'

Her cheeks went slightly red. "Well, yes, but…"

"No 'but's, Miss Research." Noel smiled at the younger female. The brunette's cheeks flamed now and she turned her face away from the group, embarrassed. Ragna smirked before turned his attention back to the rest of the group.

"…We'll catch up to him in no time."

"That's not what I meant." Yuri said aloud before turning to them. Karol let out a 'huh' before the dark haired man continued. "Leblanc and Company will catch up if we don't get moving. You guys ready?" There was several 'yes's and 'ready's before the party grouped up again and took off.

* * *

"So, who here hasn't seen the ocean before today?"

"I hadn't."

"Oh, I haven't"

"You already know myself nor Estelle haven't seen it in person before."

"Hmph."

"…So, wait. Are you saying that I'm the only in the group who has seen the ocean before?"

"No shit, Karol."

"Ragna! No swearing!"

* * *

"Hm, looks like a storm is coming in."

"Great, just what we needed, rain."

"Ragna! Don't be…Never mind. I don't really want rain either."

"B-but, Noel, the plants need it!"

"Doesn't change the fact that we really don't need it right now."

* * *

When they finally got to Capua Nor, it was to rained on and see hardly a person wandering the streets. This later fact made the group stare in confusion. "This…isn't what I was expecting." Estelle said softly.

"I wasn't how I imagined Capua Nor either." Yuri frowned.

Rita turned to look at him. "But this seems to be the type of place your core thief would be."

"Look, this discussion is great and all." Ragna dead panned. "But I think we would all be better off in, you know, a _building._ " The party coughed slightly before quickly finding a place that had some shelter from the rain.

Once they had, Yuri turned back to Rita. "Dedecchi was headed to Torrim Harbor, remember?"

She nodded once. "I'm sure the two are similar, though."

"No way." Karol shot her down. "It's only Nor Harbor that's scummy like this."

"Why's that?" Noel questioned.

Karol puffed out his cheeks in irritation. "It's all because of the empire." Sadly, he didn't get to go any farther than that, because that was when they heard yelling from nearby.

"I told you what would happen to that little brat if you didn't give us the money!"

Two people were on their hands and knees, begging a pair of armored men to give them more time. On reflex, Ragna's hand rested on Blood-Scythe as Yuri's hand on his own blade. The two men continued their mocking while the store owners sobbed over their now kidnapped son. Ragna hissed. "Bastards, using a little kid as a hostage…"

Yuri, however, moved forward to trip the man of the couple to the ground. "Oops, I didn't see you there."

Estelle shot him a scolding look. "Yuri! ...I'm sorry about that, let me heal this."

"B-but I can't afford this treatment…" The man trailed off as Noel groaned.

"It's fine!" The blond puffed. "We're not expecting payment for healing you, right Estelle." The pinkette nodded grimly.

While the woman was thanking Estelle, Yuri and Ragna bother noted something move out of the corner of their eyes. Glancing at one another, they nodded. They'd take care of that. Noel was the only one to note their leaving. The blond frowned as the man got up…

* * *

Stepping into the alley, Yuri turned to look at the three assassins that had appeared. "Pathetic." The dark haired man grumbled. Ragna smirked and put one hand on his hip.

"Think you can take all of them on by youself?"

Yuri laughed slightly. "`course I can. Who do you think I am?" Sadly, even after dispatching several of them, Yuri realized it may be easier with Ragna then without.

Ragna didn't need any asking as he stepped forward, smirked at the completely clothed groupies, and tore it, careful not to kill any one for once.

Of course, the two never had the best of luck and were separated from each other on the two side of the alley. Yuri had to block an attack, not noticing until it was too late the enemies above. Ragna spun around and yelled, seeing the two assassins falling down on top of the dark haired swordsman.

Then Yuri was shoved to the side and the two assassin were slammed into the opposing wall. The rest of them quickly fled, snagging as many unconscious allies as they could. A blond knight in blues and teal-greens turned to the dark swordsman. "Are you all right, Yuri?"

* * *

  
**Chapter 04**

**Revelations and Port Towns**

**END**

* * *

Ragna has learned the arte 'Gun Flame'!


	6. Knight Scifo, Magistrate Ragou

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

― Robert Frost

* * *

Ragna stare. Who hell was this?

"Flynn!" The silverette blinked, surprised. This knight was Flynn? "What're you….? Hey! That's my line!"

The blond laughed slightly. "I've been looking everywhere for you." Yuri complained that that was his line again as Flynn turned to the silver haired swordsman. "…Who are you?"

"Ragna." He grumbled, eyeing the knight with a frown.

Flynn nodded, seeming to be wary of the 'unknown'. "Alright…" The blond rather suddenly spun on the dark haired man and swung his blade down on him. Ragna stepped forward, pulling Blood-Scythe up.

"What're you doing?!" Yuri demanded.

The knight didn't answer. "Yuri, I'm glad you're finally going out to see the world outside the barrier." He continued his attack. Ragna paused suddenly, thinking for some odd reason of Jin—If only because this situation was somewhat similar to that.

"So be a little more happy then and stop pointing the thing at me! Ragna!" The other swordsman jerked slightly before jerking forward to stop Flynn. However, he stopped when the blond jabbed his sword at the wall of the alley.

"I got a little less happy when I saw this!"

Ragna snorted softly at seeing the poster: The picture still looked nothing like Yuri. Yuri looked happy to see it. "Oh, it up to 10,000 gald now. Nice." Flynn sheathed his sword, looking irritated at the dark haired swordsman flippant tone.

Flynn sighed through his nose. "I didn't think when you quit the knights you'd start up a life of crime." Ragna jerked is head around to look at Yuri, surprised. He had been a part of the Imperial Knights?

"A lot of things have happened, Flynn." Yuri waved a hand. "It's not that simple."

"You've got that right." Ragna grumbled. Flynn turned his heated haze on the red clad swordsman. He glared back at the knight. "It _is_. I mean, Estelle didn't exactly get kidnapped. It's probably closer to say Yuri was kidnapped by Estelle." The dark swordsman huffed and gave him a mock pout which Ragna rolled his eyes at.

As Yuri began to walk away, he saw something, or someone, approach the alleyway. "Uh-oh…"

Estelle was standing there and she began to speak. "Yuri, Ragna, I heard something. Are you all…"

"…Perfect Timing, Estelle." Ragna muttered as the pinkette happily bounced down towards them. Yeah, that's right, _bounced_.

She hurried down before flinging her arms around the knight, who looked severely surprised by it. "Oh, Flynn! Are you all right? Have you been hurt?" Ragna shook his head slightly as he walked pass them to meet up with Yuri.

He heard Flynn stuttering at the girl and he snorted slightly: It was so obvious that the blond liked her. "Oi, Yuri. You sure it's okay to leave them like that?" The dark haired swordsman shrugged slightly in response. Ragna snorted.

"What—Ah, Flynn! There's something I need to tell you!" Estelle cried as Flynn dragged her away. Ragna frowned slightly. Where were they going?

Yuri, on the other hand, sighed. "We better go find Karol, Rita, and Noel." The silverette made to argue but Yuri walked away without another word. He looked…a little sad.

While his sort-of friend wandered away down the street, Ragna spotted Noel loitering by a cart nearby. The cart itself has jewelry and Noel seemed to be having an intense conversation with the shop keeper. The silver haired man frowned and walked over. "Noel?"

The blonde girl squeaked and spun around. "R-ragna?" The shopkeeper had a mysterious grin on his face when he heard his name and Ragna's frown deepened. Noel continued. "W-what're you doing….right here?"

"Looking for you."

"…Oh. Sorry." The girl mumbled. Ragan shrugged and the two left the stand, Noel waving the shopkeeper goodbye.

When they caught up with Yuri, Karol, and Rita, it was to see the male brunette staring down the street in complete confusion. "Some guy dragged Estelle right by us…."

Yuri hummed. "Are they at the Inn?"

"Yep. So that other guy was Flynn then?" Karol questioned. Yuri nodded.

Noel pouted. "Aw, that means I'm the only who hasn't seen Flynn, then."

Rita shook her head as Yuri made to enter the Inn. "You won't get a word in edgewise if you go in right now." Karol agreed and suggested going around town for a little bit. Yuri grumbled and the group split up for a bit.

Noel dragged Ragna back over to the stalls and began to browse. The silverette began to day dream, bored of the shopping. Why'd he have to get into this? It was about an hour later when they returned to the Inn to find Yuri pacing. "Someone's antsy." Ragna grumbled as Noel continued to be secretive about her purchases.

Finally, they entered the inn and were directed to a private room. Flynn and Estelle were sitting across from each other. "You all done?" Ragna grumbled.

"And are you done whispering secrets?" Yuri said brightly.

Flynn rubbed his temples. "I've heard your story up until this point, Yuri, and why you have a bounty on your head." The blond finally stood to turn and look the other man in the eye. "First off, I owe you a thanks for protecting her." Estelle stood and bowed lightly, echoing the blond's sentiments.

Yuri shrugged. "It was nothing. I was already out searching for the blastia thief."

His knight friend sighed. "And that is where we have a problem." All of the party seemed to narrow their eyes while Yuri just 'hmm'ed. "Regardless of the circumstances, the imperial law cannot allow the obstruction of officers, jail breaking and trespassing."

Ragna snorted to himself and Noel shot him a stern look, even if she knew why: He had done a lot more than that in their own world.

"I'm sorry." Estelle murmured. "I'm afraid I told him everything."

"Don't be." Yuri shrugged, his eyes flashing to the pinkette. "I mean, I did do all that stuff."

Flynn sighed. "Then I assume you are prepared for the punishment your actions deserve." Ragna scoffed in disgust. Was this guy really Yuri's friend? The blond shot him a look. "And you are…?"

He rolled his mismatched eyes. "I told you earlier, my name is Ragna. Tch, before you go arresting your _friend_ , I've got a question for you." The knight frowned but nodded. "You haven't met a guy with green hair, likes to walk around with his eyes closed just to mess with people, and is either called 'Terumi Yuki' or 'Hazama', have ya?"

Estelle looked up, a faintly surprised look on her face while Flynn looked taken aback. "Well…" The knight trailed off. "Yes, there's a Hazama that fits that description working with the knights. He's the commandant's advisor. Why?"

Ragana scowled deeply and Noel's expression twisted into one of disdainful anger—It was the first time they had seen such a look on her face. Flynn shook his head, obviously confused by Ragna's muttered cursing before turning back on Yuri. "Well?"

Estelle shook herself and stepped forward, an upset look on her face. "Flynn…!"

Yuri smirked at Ragna for a second, thanking him in his own way for buying him time. "Do whatever you like, Flynn, but just listen a minute will you?"

"So you can tell me it was all to get back the Lower Quarter's blastia core? That's what you wanted to say, right?"

However, before Yuri could reply, a duo entered the room. "Sir Flynn, I have news…What! W-what is Rita doing here?" The young child in a white cloak looked startled. "I heard you refused an imperial request for assistance! Do you think it's alright for a mage under employ by the empire can simply ignore their obligations?"

"Who's this?" Yuri turned to look at the female brunette.

Rita shrugged. "Got me…"

"Humph! It's not like I care a whit about you either." _Why do I suddenly want to thump this bratty kid?_ Ragna glared at the teen.

Flynn rubbed his temples slightly. "Let me make introductions. This is my second in command, Sodia." The blond gestured to the red-haired knight who had entered with the mage kid. She nodded slightly to them. "This is Witcher, a mage who offered his assistance to us at the laboratory in Aspio." Witcher, the young teen mage who had spoken earlier, tweaked his glasses. Flynn gestured to Yuri. "This is my…"

"You..! Sir, it's the criminal from the wanted poster!" She pulled out her sword but Flynn moved forward, placing a hand on the weapon. Quickly, he explained that Yuri was a friend. "What?! But, Sir, he's a wanted man!"

"I've just heard this man's story. While he is guilty of minor crimes, the warrant for his arrest contains false accusations." Flynn sighed. "Later, I will return him to the capital, explain the situation, and he will receive his due punishment."

Sodia back off, looking vaguely irritated. "My…My mistake, Sir. Witcher, let's have your report."

Rita leaned towards Yuri, as did the other three members of the group. "So, we're done here, right?"

The report about a blastia messing with the weather made Rita paused however and pay more attention. In turn, so did Ragna and Noel: whatever she had her eye one meant it was something important. "So." Yuri spoke up. "That means His Lordship or whatever is controlling the weather?"

"It…looks that way, yes." Sodia said warily. "The harbor has been closed due to the weather. Any ship that leaves is fired on for disobeying the ordinance."

"Well, there goes our boat to Torim Harbor…" Noel sighed.

Flynn continues the discussion by bringing up the other rumor surrounding Ragou: He released a powerful monster and then gets his kicks by telling those who can't pay their taxes to go and hunt for it, claiming that the taxes would be waived if they killed or captured it.

"How cruel…." Estelle muttered.

Rita 'tch'ed. "That injured couple we met must be two of his victims."

Karol glared at the wall. "And their child…"

"Hostage." Ragna growled. This got Flynn's attention.

"What? What happened to their child? What do you mean by, 'Hostage'…?"

Yuri sighed at the blond knight. "Forget about it." He turned to the door. "Well, it's been a hell of day for us, and we're tired. Let's just stay at this Inn for the night."

As the group moved out of the room, Estelle made to follow. Sodia spoke up. "Also…we can't forget about a certain 'Missing Person'…" Estelle glanced back, confused, but continued out of the Inn's private room.

Instead of staying in the Inn as Yuri had said they would, they exited the building. Karol spun on his heel and turned to look at the dark haired swordsman. "So, what's the plan?"

"I'm going to go see Magistrate Ragou." Estelle spoke up.

Karol shook his head. "We'll get turned away at the gate if we do that." He played with the strap of his bag. "Even a noblewoman like you wouldn't be able to get in."

"Sounds a lot like the twelve noble families, back home…" Noel muttered to Ragna. He grumbled slightly as he nodded.

Yuri crossed his arms. "Yeah, but with harbor barricaded, we can't get to Torim Harbor, and the blastia thieves are both across the sea over in that harbor."

"We could just try going anyway." Noel suggested and Rita agreed.

The dark haired man nodded slowly. "Right. Well, if he doesn't listen to us, we need to come up with another plan." The group nodded and then headed off towards Ragou's mansion.

When they got there, the guards stepped forward, glaring at Estelle. The pinkette quelled slightly but answered the guard's barked question. "I'd like to meet with Magistrate Ragou, if you'd be so kind."

Karol scooted over to Ragna and Yuri. "Guys, these two are mercenaries…I wonder what guild they're from…?" Yuri snorted.

"Hmph, go home! Scram! The magistrate is a busy man!"

"Surely not too busy to rough up the people in town?" Yuri replied with a dose of sarcasm. The helmeted guard glowered at him. Karol grumbled a 'Told you so' and the group left the guard duo alone at the gates.

When the party stopped further down the street away from the gate, Yuri turned to them. "We best leave the frontal assault on the gates to the Imperial Knights." Ragna seemed to…pout at this statement which made everyone (Except Noel, for one reason or another) eye the silverette warily. "What's with that look?"

Ragna shrugged while Noel giggled softly, a knowing look on her face. Rita shook her head. "Anyway, isn't the fact that the frontal assault is going so badly the reason why Flynn is in such a bad mood?"

"He's an arrogant ass." Ragna spoke up. Estelle spun on him, upset. "Ragou, that is. If we bring him 'gifts' then he may…."

"…Let us in." Yuri grinned evilly. "You're on the same wavelength as me. Ha."

Rita frowned. "Gift…?"

Yuri ran a hand through his long hair. "The Rhybgaro. If we get its horns…"

"Then Ragou might let us in!" Noel clapped her hands. Repede barked in agreement from his spot next to the blond.

"Alright!" Karol cheered. "We've got a plan! Now what?"

"Track down that thing, obviously."

Karol winced. "Oh, but if we're going to do that…we'll need to head out now." Several curious looks were aimed at him. He blushed. "W-well…The Rhybgaro likes rain. It's the only monster that will come out during the rain, because of that."

"Okay!" Estelle clasped her hands. "Let's go ask the townspeople where it might be and then go."

"Are you sure, Estelle?" Yuri questioned. She nodded, determined. "If we're unlucky, this can put us on the wrong side of the law. The one who makes the laws in this town is the magistrate. You'd be okay with defying him?"

Estelle frowned, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm coming! And you can't convince me not to."

"We're all coming as well." Ragna spoke up, shrugging lightly. The rest of the party nodded. "You can't convince us not to either."

Yuri sighed. "Alright. If that's what you want."

* * *

"Hey, Ragna?"

"Yeah Estelle?"

"Why do you seem kind of….flippant about this whole 'breaking the law' thing?"

"….It's not that important to me, especially when the people in charge are corrupt asses."

"…I see…"

* * *

"Hm? Estelle, is there something wrong?"

"Are…you okay with breaking the law?"

"Not completely. But who else is going to stand by Ragna's side?"

"…Wow! You're so dedicated! _Eyes Sparkle._

"(W-what's with that look on Estelle's face…?)"

* * *

"You never could sit still, could you?" Flynn grumbled at the dark haired swordsman as Yuri trailed behind the group.

"Stop treating me like a little kid!" Yuri glared at the blond.

Flynn huffed slightly. "Yuri, don't do anything reckless!"

Ignoring him, Yuri began to walk away. "I haven't done a reckless thing since I was born. _You_ should be the one easing up on trying the impossible, Flynn." The dark haired man followed after the party, Estelle slowly trailing after him.

She paused. "I'm sorry, Flynn."

He sighed. "It's fine." His cheeks took on a light shade of pink. "…How….How is it, walking around outside, free?"

Estelle turned to him. "I can't say everything has been perfect, but I realized that there are many things I must do. And that makes me happy. It's been wonderful."

Flynn smiled. "Good, I'm glad to hear it."

"We need to catch up with the others." Noel touched Estelle's arm. The pinekette blushed and nodded and then followed the rest of the group out into the out-lying fields.

It took a full day before they tracked it down. When they did, Noel tipped her head as she eyed it warily. "It looks…kind of like a deer, huh, Ragna?"

He 'hmm'ed in agreement, his hand resting on Blood-Scythe. The Rhygbaro growled before leaping forward to attack them. "Be careful not to damage its horns!" Yuri yelled as he dodged its attempt to brain him.

It didn't take long to defeat it, as it was incredibly weak in comparison to Gattuso. Ragna got the final blow by stabbing the deer-like creature through the upper legs. After that, it had collapsed. "C`mon, let's take it back." Karol suggested.

Estelle sighed. "I kind of feel bad for it…it's covered in scars and bruises." She kneeled down and healed the wounds from Ragna's stab.

"I reckon it's been attacked by the townspeople several times." Yuri muttered.

"It's not their fault!" Estelle cried.

"You're right, Estelle." Noel said gently. "It's Ragou's fault for releasing it out here and then telling the townspeople to capture it to get their taxes waived." The pinkette sniffed slightly before nodding to Noel's explanation.

Yuri stepped forward and kneeled down next to the beast. Unlike the others, Ragna got what he was doing instantly. The silverette smirked slightly. "Well, all Ragou wants is the horn. Might as well give it to him, huh?"

The dark swordsman smirked back.

While they were talking, the Rhybgaro skittered up. Karol grabbed his hammer, ready to fight, but it only ran away. Estelle was ecstatic. Karol was confused.

Now that their mission was a success, the party began the trek back to Nor Harbor. However, as soon as they returned, the group found trouble. This trouble? It was in the form of the couple they had helped out earlier that week.

The woman was yelling at her husband, obviously angered by his attempt to leave town. When the man blew off her concerned and stepped forward as if to leave the town, Yuri intervened. "Now, where do you think you're going with such a dangerous weapon?"

"That's no business of yours! I can't have you sticking your nose into my affairs just because you're curious."

To the surprise of the party, Yuri tossed over the Rhybgaro Horn. The man gapped openly at the horn now in his hand. "T-this is…?!"

"Sorry for stealing your thunder before. Maybe this will make it up to you." Yuri shrugged.

The wife of the couple stumbled forward, shocked. They echoed 'Thank you's as the dark haired man walked away.

"Hang on!" Karol cried after they'd walk away. "You're just going to give it to them?!" Noel shot him a stern look while Ragna was eyeing Yuri with interest: This was the first time he had seen the man do something at random like that.

Yuri sighed. "What's more important, getting in like that, or a child's life?"

"You were planning this from the beginning?"

"Nope. It just came to me."

Rita groaned. "Well, now what're we going to do?"

"No worries!" Yuri said cheerfully. "We'll just have to find another way in."

"Easy for you to say." Ragna grumbled.

Noel brushed some of her loose hair from her face. "Well, Flynn might've gotten through to the Palace while we were gone and solved our problem. So maybe we should check it out?"

Yuri nodded in agreement and the party headed to the Inn where they knew the blond was most likely to be. Inside, they were directed to the private rooms where Flynn was currently grumbling about the attempts to enter Ragou's palace. "You're looking as chipper as always, Flynn!" Yuri said brightly as they entered the rooms.

"I've got a lot on my mind, Yuri. Not that you'd know that was like." At Yuri's 'hmph', Flynn carried out. "Did you go out and manage to get your bounty raised even higher?"

Yuri changed the subject. "I thought you went to the magistrate's place."

"I went. Along with a search warrant for the blastia research lab."

"Ah, so you were able to go inside and look around."

Flynn shook his head. "No. The Magistrate refused us entry."

Ragna whistled. "No wonder you seem so mad."

Witcher looked rather…angry, to put it mildly. "He even tried to provoke us. 'If you think I have blastia, try to bust your way in' he said!"

"He knows we don't have the jurisdiction to do that!" Sodia grumbled. "He's just making a mockery of us!" The red-head looked about ready to pop.

"Well, isn't he right?"

Sodia spun on Yuri. "What was that!?"

Karol frowned. "Whose side are you on, Yuri?"

"It's not a matter on whose side I'm on," Yuri said, "If you think you're right, you should have forced your way inside." Ragna was caught nodding lightly in agreement with the other swordsman. Noel shot him a scolding look.

Flynn sighed. " _No_. It's a trap. Ragou wants the Imperial Guard to make mistake so he can increase the authority of the Council." The blond knight frowned. "Even if we go in now, he'll hide the evidence and feign innocence."

Estelle seemed surprised by the mention of the council and asked about it. "Magistrate Ragou is on the council, yes." Flynn closed his eyes, looking tired.

The discussion went on to talk about how Flynn and his group may be able to get into the mansion if someone causes a disturbance…like a thief. Yuri says with a very innocent look that he'd never do something like that.

The next thing the party knew they were gathered outside of Ragou's palace. "It gets bigger every time I see it." Karol grumbled.

Estelle repeated another straight-from-textbook phrase about the council and Rita ruffled her short hair. "Which basically means they represent the empire's interests." She sighed.

"You don't say…" Karol muttered.

"What about getting inside?" Nole questioned, staring up at the building. "It doesn't look that easy to break into."

"Neither did the NOL Branches, but I managed that just fine, didn't I?" Ragna muttered into her ear and the blond squeaked from surprised.

"R-ragna! Don't do that!" She scolded. The silverette just smirked at her.

A deep laugh behind them. "Tough luck. Place is surrounded by a wall and there's no getting in unless you can clear it." The speaker was an older man with dark hair wearing a purple over coat.

He jerked towards Estelle, placing a finger on his lip. "Ya won't last long if you go screaming on the spot, yer ladyship."

"Um, sorry, but who're you?"

"Whaddya mean? Me and the kid there are old friends, right, pal?" The pony tailed man said cheerfully.

"What're you looking at?" Yuri eyed the party warily. "I barely know this guy."

He pouted. "Now, now, don't be like that! What about the fun times we had in jail, Mr. Yuri Lowell?"

"Ha?" He narrowed his eyes at the man. "I don't remember telling you my name."

Ragna snorted. "If you've forgotten Yuri, there are posters for your arrest all over the empire, and if those idiot knight can somehow recognize that scribble as you, then anyone with half a brain would able to."

To put emphasize on the point, the man waved around a paper with a shit-eating grin.

"Huh?" was his response when Karol asked his name. He stroked that scruffy goatee of his. "I suppose Raven will do."

Ragna deadpanned. _Oh, yeah, that's not suspicious at all._

Yuri sighed. "Well, Raven, it was nice seeing you again, but you should buzz off."

"Aw, come on. You're trying to get into the palace right? Leave that to yer buddy Raven!" His grin made Ragna suddenly want to punch something. His eye must've been twitching or something, because Noel laid a hand on his arm.

Rita groaned as Raven ran off. "Shouldn't we stop him?"

"Actually, he pulled a trick like this that helped me get out of the castle." Yuri mused.

Estelle seemed surprised. "Really? Well, maybe we can trust him then."

"Hope so…" Yuri muttered before glancing at Raven, who was happily chatting with the guards at the gate.

Then, suddenly, the guards are running towards them and the party groans as one. "Tch, using us as a distraction…"

"Oooooh, I'll kill him!" Rita raged. In her anger, she stormed out into the street and slammed two 'Fire Ball' spell artes into the guards. They keeled over instantly.

"Insta KO." Noel muttered.

Karol sighed. "There she goes again…Now what?"

"Now we go inside." Yuri said easily. "What else would we do, when the guards are taken out like this?"

Left with no choice, the group took off towards the gates. However, when Rita was about to place her hands on the dark green-blue doors of the mansion, Yuri flagged her down. "Woah, not the front door. Let's see if we can get in from the side."

They moved off to the left first until they spotted Raven. Rita screamed and threw herself at the man, obviously frustrated. He dodged and stepped around her. "Heh. Told ya I'd get ya in." He gestured to a blank space of wall.

Rita got up from her faceplant, rubbing mud from her cheeks. "That's just a wall, fool."

Raven gave her another shit-eating grin. "Nah, watch this." He pressed one of the inscriptions. Two doors opened up and he went streaking into one. "See ya! Have a nice day!" And he was gone.

Rita cursed in anger. "Ooooh, I'll get him!

Sighing, Yuri turned to the group. "Well, I think we found our way in."

* * *

  
**Chapter 05**

**Knight Scifo, Magistrate Ragou**

_**END** _

* * *

**Ragna is now Level 26!**

**Noel is now level 25!**

**Rita is now level 24!**

**Yuri is now level 25!**

**Estelle is now level 24!**

**Karol is now level 24!**

* * *

**_Imperial Knight Profiling_ **

_**Captain Flynn Scifo** _

Well-known and respected, FLYNN SCIFO was often found keeping guard over the currently missing LADY ESTELLISE. Currently, he is out on mission though he has reported the occasionally run in with criminal YURI LOWELL.

* * *

**_Guild Profiles_ **

_**Raven** _

A good friend of Don Whitehorse, not much else is known of this tricky archer.


	7. Floating Palace of the Magistrate

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

\- Harriet Beecher Stowe

* * *

"It only goes down…"Noel sighed.

Currently, the party was gathered in what could pass as the Palace's dungeons. Unfortunately, because of this, they were pretty much forced to wander through the halls. It took what felt like an hour to get through until they finally managed to get into section outside of the secret entrances.

It was when they entered the first room of this section that a soft wailing got their attention. "Someone's…crying?" Estelle mumbled.

"Huh, maybe it's a ghost?" Karol wondered out loud.

"G-g-ghost?" Ragna stuttered, a strange wide eyed look on his face. The party stared at him, confused. "Y-you're joking r-right? There's…no ghosts here…right?"

Karol stared blankly at the elder male. "…Are you scared of ghosts, Ragna?"

The red clad swordsman looked away, his cheeks stained red. "N-no way! Why would I b-be?" The party exchanged look that clearly said 'Yeah right.' He glared at them, embarrassed by their obvious denial.

Estelle sighed, shook her head, and moved away from the party, seeking the source of the crying. Surprised and unwilling to leave the pinkette alone, Noel followed. Ragna in turn followed the dual gunner and it just went on from there.

The pinkette studiously ignored Yuri's questions (and demands) about where they were headed. Eventually, they came to a room and a young boy was curled up in the corner, crying. "Guess it wasn't a ghost after all." Karol grinned when Ragna jolted slightly at the word 'ghost.'

The little child finally got up, looking tired, most likely from his crying. "Are you all right?" Estelle kneeled down next to him.

"I-I think so…who're you?" The kid mumbled.

"I'm Estelle, and these are my friends." She brushed some of her short hair out of her face. "We're here to help. Are you the child of the couple from the boat house?" The tiny red haired boy nodded slowly and she smiled. "Alright! Come on, we'll take you with us, okay?" The boy smiled weakly before taking her hand.

It was after fighting through the monsters in this section of the basement that the party was finally able to get a key that lead to another room. This room was cavernous and everyone was eyeing it warily, almost unwilling to enter it. Finally, giving in, Ragna stepped into the room, followed by the rest of the group.

"Tch, looks like a jail cell." He grumbled, eyeing the huge wall of iron bars. Yuri couldn't help but agree with the silverette.

Rita glanced at the bars, her brows furrowed deeply. "…There's someone over there." The party warily approached the bars…only to find that on the other side was Magistrate Ragou.

"Well, well, what do we have here? More delicious snacks for my pet, it seems." The old council member chuckled.

Yuri glared. "So, you're Ragou? You've got some disgusting hobbies."

He chuckled again. "Hobbies? Oh, you must mean my basement. Only someone with my refined sensibilities could understand the pleasure I derive from such things." He crossed his arms behind his back. "It's the privilege—"

"Privilege my ass!" Ragna snarled. "You just get your kicks out of torturing people. Guys like you disgust the hell outta me!"

Ragou looked irritated by Ragna's interruption. "You lot are just like all those senile old men on the council. They bored me to death and never let me have fun." He sighed. "Might as well go fetch Rhybgaro. He would enjoy the new toys here."

The dark haired man snorted. "Sorry, but we already took care of Rhybgaro. There' be no point in fetching him."

"What did you say…?" Ragou actually looked a little unnerved. Yuri mocked him with a simple 'Are you deaf?' The magistrate glowered. "You…what have you done with my pet?"

"Che, not that it's any of your business, but let's just say that guy won't be hurting anyone else any time soon." Ragna snickered. It wastrue: The Rhybgaro would be unable to hurt or injure anyone without its horn.

Ragou was very irritated but with a quick breath in and out, he calmed. "Ah, well, with a bit more money, I can simply buy another." Estelle looked down as she noticed the young boy cling to her hand.

She stepped forward, still holding the little kid's hand. "Ragou! How can you say such things and still call yourself a servant of the Empire?!"

The man stepped back, startled by the pinkette's presence. "You…?! Impossible!" Yuri was fed up. Unsheathing his sword, he brandishing at the gates of the iron bars and sent them flying into pieces. Ragou fell onto his behind, looking horrified. "S-stay back! W-what do you intend to do? S-someone, arrest these intruders!"

"Coward…" Noel muttered, sending the now fleeing man a look of dislike. Ragna shot her a look of faint surprise as it was well-known that it took a lot to make Noel hate you, or even dislike you.

Yuri frowned. "We need to get going, or else enemies will be crawling all over the place. Come on!" Rita was stopped when she attempted to create the emergency for the Knights to respond to and they moved out to locate the Weather-controlling Blastia.

Up the stairs from the jail cell room, they found a large entrance-hall type room with a humongous blastia in the center of it. A light blue blastia core glowed from the center with cat walks leading this way and that around it.

"Is this the blastia we're looking for?" Karol questioned.

Rita ignored him and dashed up the stairs to the cat walk in front of the core. Raising her hands, a magic circle appeared and she began to go through the formula for the blastia. "Strihm…Laitos…Rockra…Fleck…" Rita mumbled as she went though. "They just patched together blastia with different formulas! This formula could manipulate the weather, but how could they use them like this?"

"She's pretty much in love with blastia, if you haven't noticed yet." Ragan muttered to the party. There were several stifled snickers at this statement.

"It's just like at Ehmead Hill!" Rita cried out. "They don't have a slightest respect for what they're working with."

Estelle clapped her hands. "This is exactly what we need for evidence."

"You're going to have to finish that later, Rita." Noel called, concern etched on her face.

Rita hissed slightly. "Just a little bit more…I just need to check a few more things…" The brunette sounded just a tad stressed out.

Yuri stepped forward. "You can have Flynn let you have a look later, after we're done. We've got to start out little 'emergency', remember?"

"Can't we break something that won't be missed?" Estelle questioned.

"Don't think so." Ragna spoke up, one hand on his hip, the other rubbing the back of his neck. "Ragou won't count that as an emergency if we don't do something that'll really piss that guy off." Karol rather suddenly began to slam his hammer down on the ground, making the whole room shake. Rita cursed in anger before shooting off a couple 'fireball' spell artes (Noel cried out as she was forced to dodge one).

Karol in turned cursed back at her when he too was nearly hit by one. The brunette scoffed. "We need to get the knights' attention, right?" She spun and shot off a few more 'Fireball' artes. "So we've got to set off a real emergency here."

"Well, yes, but I don't think burning the mansion down is really smart." Noel groaned.

"Really! What a way to behave in someone else's home!"

"Oh, god, not you again…" Ragna glowered at Ragou, who had reappeared into the room, most likely drawn in by the shaking and yelling. Of course, he decided to bring along some mercenary buddies. "Really?" The silverette snorted. "Rita knocked out two of your guards with a _single_ Fireball arte. Do you really think you'll be able to actually match us?"

Said mercenaries glared at the red clad swordsman in utter fury. How dare he mock them? It was enough…to get them to through away on semblance of strategy and attacked him.

Ragou ignored him. "Remember, you can do whatever you want to them…except for the young woman with pink hair! She is not to be touched!"

"Are you guys…from the Blood Alliance?" Karol cried, surprised.

Rita was ignoring the panic down below, throwing fireballs towards walls and ceilings. "Here! Have another!" She cried, throwing them around like they were candy.

Taking out the mercenaries, Yuri ran to Rita, who had moved down to the bottom floor. "Hey, Rita, we need to go!"

She opened her mouth to argue. "Oi, Lovebirds, now is so not the time!" Ragna cried over any of Rita's attempts to argue. "We need to leave before the knights come!"

Rita scoffed. "I doubt they're that fast." Her last fireball detonated just above Flynn's group of imperial knights.

"Yes, yes I do think they're that fast." Yuri said mock-cheerfully while Flynn offered Ragou his help.

Ragou turned his head away. "My…he sure is enthusiastic…" Unfortunately, his answer to Flynn as cut off by the shattering of glass above them. It was the dragon rider, the one that had been mentioned at Ehmead Hill.

Above them, the knights are attempting to fight the dragon rider, but to no avail: He easily squeezes by them and slashes the blastia. "No!" Rita yelled. "The Blastia!" The brunette then began to scold the rider, furious.

Estelle, on the other hand, was gapping. "There really is a person on that dragon!" Rita, in her anger, began to shoot off fireballs at the Dragon Rider. All of them missed by a mile. The brunette started shaking, her eyes flashing in fury.

"Oh, great." Ragna muttered. "A temperamental Mage that is now furious. I feel real safe right now." Yuri stifled his snicker.

"No! He's getting away!" Whether Flynn met the rider or Ragou, the party didn't know. However, Ragna did catch Rita and Yuri both running after the magistrate. Soon enough, the rest of the party followed them.

Once outside, Rita stomped a foot childishly. "ARGH! What the hell! Who rides a monster like that?!" She was shaking with barely suppressed anger.

"That was the dragon rider." Noel mumbled softly.

"Dragon Rider?! More like Dragon Freak!" She screamed at the blond. The dual gunner flinched back, startled. "Husting my blastia like that!"

"Rita!" Ragna snapped. "Calm the fuck down before I kick you! You hurt Noel!" The brunette calmed slightly, seeing the blond's face.

Estelle bit her lip. "A-anyway, why do you think someone would go around destroying blastia?"

"Tch, how should we know?" Ragna ran a hand through his hair. "If we could track the guy down, then sure, maybe we'd find out, but right now? Sure as hell ain't gonna happen."

Rita sniffed. "As if you could have a normal conversation with someone like that."

Yuri sighed before glancing at the young boy, whom looked absolutely terrified. "Hey? Do you think you can get home on your own?"

"..You're going to get that bad Ragou person, right?" The boy mumbled.

"Yeah."

"Then I'll be fine." The little boy ran away and the group turned to watch him go.

"…I was starting to become fond of him…" Noel sighed.

Ragna scoffed. "Tch, I wasn't."

Karol grinned evilly. "What, because you thought he was a ghost?"

"Shut the hell up."

Karol dissolved into giggles while Ragna glared PURE DEATH at the male brunette. Yuri turned to Estelle. "What's wrong?"

"The magistrate…He did such horrible things…" She looked down at her feet, sadness radiating off her in waves.

Noel let out a puff of air. "Unfortunately, even I can tell that's really common here." She shook her head. "…We shouldn't talk about this right now. Ragou's escaping, remember?"

They raced after Ragou, only to see the ship was about ready to kick off from the harbor. Rita was grumbling in anger over everything and Yuri was grinning like a maniac. Why did Ragna have a bad feeling…? "You guys ready?" The dark haired man said happily.

"Hold it, Hold it, Hold it! I'm not read—" Karol screamed as Yuri threw him over his shoulder and the party threw themselves over onto Ragou's ship. They landed with a harsh 'THUMP' onto the wooden planking of the ship and Karol fell to his knees, swearing under his breath.

Rita was rifling through a nearby chest. She hissed. "These are all blastia cores!"

Karol frowned when he stepped up behind her. "Why are there so many? They're just the cores…" She shot him a glare over her shoulder.

"I," She said, "Have no idea. We don't even have as many this in the laboratory."

"Is he the real blastia thief?" Noel questioned. Yuri mumbled a 'maybe.'

Their hammer wielding friend frowned. "But I thought the one behind it was a huge guy with one eye. That's doesn't fit Ragou at all."

Ragna crossed his arms. "Obviously, there's more going on here then we first thought."

"I wonder if the core from the Lower Quarter is here…" Yuri questioned.

Rita shook her head. "Sorry, none of these are big enough."

By Noel, Repede began to growl, his hackles raised. The reason why was soon made apparent as several pirate like beings appeared. Karol leaned away from the sailors. "I knew it…They're Blood Alliance, one of the five master guilds." The male brunette mumbled.

The pirates began their attack, and they were soon torn about in only a few minutes. Ragna snorted over their KO`d bodies. "Morons."

Karol moves to try and get up the stairs that lead up to the second floor. Of course, he was blocked by a large mercenary man, yelling at the male brunette to get out of his way. "Ooooh, who is this?" Noel cried out, confused.

"Ha!" The man laughed. "Was that spineless worm Ragou running from a bunch of kids?"

Ragna narrowed his eyes. "…He only had one eye. And he's a big guy. What do you think, Yuri?"

Yuri gave the large man a cold smile from behind him. "Oh, yes, He's probably the one we've been searching for." The dark haired swordsman pulled out his sword and pressed it against the large man's side.

"Maybe I am." He grinned. "Maybe I ain't." The large man attacked Yuri with his sword, which seemed even bigger than Ragna's Blood-Scythe. "You're quick and you've got guts. My arms gonna feel that...Wish you were in my guild."

"Good for you."

Tch, pushy guys like you…I gotta watch out for `em, because they upset the balance of my guild. So, nothing personal, okay?" The large man smirked.

Ragou finally decided to make his appearance. "What are you doing, Barbos?! Dispose of these brats!"

Barbos 'Tch'ed again. "I did all the work you asked for. And the knights'll be here soon. I'd rather not have those guys following me around, ya know?" He shrugged. "Next time we meet, you kids won't be getting off easy."

While the leader of Blood Alliance dashed past Ragou to the life boat, the former magistrate cursed. "He's still inside…! Zagi! We leave the rest to you!"

An odd man with red, yellow, and black hair appeared from the shadows. Apparently, this was Zagi. "Who is it?! Who do I get to kill this time?!"

Estelle gasped while Yuri groaned. "Know this guy?" Ragna raised an eyebrow.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"My blade…! It aches to kill…!" Zagi trembled as the boat shook roughly. Ragou and Barbos were attacking them with cannonballs. "I've got to kill something!"

He leapt at Yuri head first, but the swordsman dodged. Instead, Zagi's attack hit the mast of the ship. "Whoa~! Go easy on me this time."

"No choice!"Ragna hissed. "We've got to fight!"

**BOSS**

**Zagi**

"Man, I already don't like this guy!" Ragna hissed as he dodged one of the man's two blades. Noel shot at Zagi's feet, perhaps hoping to unbalance him, but he simply dodged the attacks.

All around them, explosions were going off and Karol was forced to nearly jump off the boat because of one of the tri-color haired man's ludges. "This guy…Is freaking crazy!"

"No shit!"

A whirl wind of blades managed to catch Ragna on his upper right arm and that same arm jerked back, forcing Blood-Scythe out of his hand. Instead of fumbling after it, the silverette pulled out Fireseal and set to work to either disarm the man in return ro hurt him enough that he'd stand down.

Ragna didn't have to worry much about the wound, as Estelle healed in seconds later. What he did have to worry about was dodging Rita's wild casting of the 'Fireball' arte along with Zagi's equally wild strikes. Yuri leapt over him as he crouched down to punch the assassin in the face.

Another explosion rocked the boat and Karol was forced into an even harder spin…which knocked Zagi off his feet. Repede took the chance to stab Zagi in the side.

When he got back on his feet, the dual wielding assassin was again knocked off his feet by an irate Yuri. "Graaah…! That hurts!" Yuri rolled his eyes at Zagi's insanity.

Fire raged around them, quickly burning the wooden boat. "Well, you put up a good fight." Yuri mumbled, sheathing his sword.

"I-I retreated…" He started laughing insanely. "You're tough! Yes, tough! You're definitely tough! I certainly won't forget that, Yuri, Ragna!"

The silverette groaned. "Great, now he's going to chase me too."

"I'm definitely going to kill you both!" He smiled wickedly. "Gonna carve you into little pieces…! Don't move a single muscles." Seconds after he started laughing again, he was blown off the ship by another explosion.

Noel mumbled. "…How odd."

"Oh…!" Karol gasped. "It's sinking!"

"Everyone!" Yuri gestured to the sea. "Get into the water!"

They heard some coughing. "I-is anyone there?" Yuri spun around, but before he could make a grab towards the door, Ragna grabbed him and threw him off the boat.

"Go!" The silverette snapped. "I'll get this guy out!" Noel shot him a concerned look before following the dark haired swordsman into the ocean. The rest of the party were quick to follow her example.

They were floating in the water as they watched the boat sink into the sea. "Ragna…!" Noel whispered desperately as they treaded water. "Please don't do this to me…"

Yuri glared at the burning corpse of a ship. "Dammit, you idiot, why did you do that?"

"Tch, who're you calling an idiot?" The group turned to a spot behind them to see the red-clad swordsman moving towards them, a blond man clutched in his arms. "What? You actually thought a burning boat would kill me? Don't be stupid."

Noel would probably have thrown herself on the swordsman if they hadn't been in the middle of the ocean. Karol managed to get attention back on track by asking a rather obvious question.

"Who's that, Ragna?"

* * *

  
**Chapter 06**

**Floating Palace of the Magistrate**

**END**

* * *

**_Guild Profiles_ **

**Zagi**

An assassin for hire, he is well-known for his merciless killing ethic. Want someone dead for absolute certainty? Hire ZAGI.


	8. The Other Harbor

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

\- Frederick Douglass

* * *

"I owe you my thanks." Ioder Argylos Heurassein, current heir to the throne of the empire, bowed slightly to the party. "You saved my life." He smiled happily at Ragna.

The silverette began to turn a light shade of red. "It was nothing, dammit. I was just saving someone from dying…."

"Who is this guy, anyway?" Rita grumbled.

Estelle stumbled over her words. "U-um, he's…"

Flynn interrupted. "I've made arrangements at the local Inn. We can discuss this more privately there." The party agreed and they moved out to the Inn, run ragged by their constant activity from the past few days.

When they got there, the group decided that, yes, they could wait until the morning. It _was_ starting to get late and the party hadn't slept in beds since Halure. Yuri ended up in a room with Karol and Rita with Estelle….Leaving Ragna and Noel alone.

In their room, Noel had flopped onto the bed, her eyes closed in thought. Ragna eyed her from his bed, where he sat with his legs crossed, Indian style.

"Hey Ragna?"

"Hm?" He glanced up as the blond sat up.

Noel turned to look at him. "It's about what happened earlier…" The silverette winced at the reminder. "I…I actually thought you might have died."

He sighed. "Did you really think something like—"

"That's not it!" Ragna blinked. What? "…Okay, that's part of it. But, that's not the main point." Noel stood up from her bed to sit down next to the red-clad swordsman. For some reason, he felt himself begin to blush. "I was really scared. If you died….I'd be all alone."

Ragna frowned. "But, you would have had Rita and the others."

She shook her head. "Maybe I would have, but it wouldn't be the same. Even if we told Rita, they're still not from our world, they don't understand…Everything that happened…" The blond began to tear up and Ragna internally panicked: What did he say?

Almost as if reading his mind, Noel continued speaking. "If you had died, I would have lost one of the only people in both worlds that care about me."

The silverette wilted at this. What…? "I don't know if my parents still consider me their daughter after leaving the NOL and Tsubaki hates me now for that very reason. Makoto is in our world still and Jin never cared about me in return. I don't even know how Carl feels anymore…and…." The emerald eyed girl began to cry in full.

"W-wha—Don't cry, dammit!" Ragna floundered. He had never been good at the whole comforting thing: It had been one of his problems as an older brother. Deciding he had no choice, Ragna wrapped his arms round Noel in an awkward hug.

Noel let out a hiccupping laugh. "Y-you're not very g-good at this hugging thing, huh?"

"At least I'm trying, dammit."

She let out another tired laugh before curling up against him. His face began to go from pink to red. Within seconds, Noel was fast asleep and Ragna was floundering again. When he tried to get out of her grasp to go to the other bed, Noel clung to his jacket tightly, not letting him move an inch.

"Not giving me a choice, huh?" He grumbled at her. "For Pete's sake, Noel…" With no other choice, Ragna lay down on the bed next to her. Soon enough, he too was asleep….

* * *

"Oi. Oiiii. Wake up, you moron. Hey! Wake up! Right now, dammit!"

Blearily, Ragna opened his eyes. What? Who was there? He squinted his eyes in the direction of the speaker and saw Rita, her hands on her hips and a faint smirk on her lips. "Getting cozy, were you?" She nodded to the warmth at his side. Confused, the silverette turned his head to look at what she had gestured at…

….and saw Noel, still deeply asleep against his side.

He spluttered.

Apparently, this was what she needed to wake up, because the dual gunner's eyes began to open. At first, she just gave the red coat she was clutching a confused look before glancing up at the owner of said coat with a hesitate look. "Ha…?" For a few seconds they just stayed like there…until Noel screamed, jumped back, and fell off the bed with a loud 'THUMP.'

Rita rolled her eyes. "Alright, lovebirds. When you're ready to come out and get some breakfast, let the rest of us know." The brunette paused in the door way. "Oh, by the way. Estelle grabbed Blood-Scythe before the ship sunk." She waved good bye over her shoulder before closing the door.

Noel sighed. "W-well, it could've been worse."

"I have no idea what you mean." Ragna said resolutely as he stood to grab his Blood-Scythe.

"…I hope Rita takes it well when we tell her."

The silverette spun on the spot. "Tell her what?"

She blinked, surprised. "I thought we agreed to tell Rita sometime soon about being from another world?"

"…No." Ragna sighed. "I don't remember that at all." Noel puffed out her cheeks, ready to scold him before he quickly retreated with Blood-Scythe in hand.

"I'm sure I mentioned." The blond ruffled her bangs. "See, I was thinking that…maybe if we told Rita about us being from a different world, we could get help from her…I mean, Rita _is_ the Genius Mage of Aspio, right?"

Ragna wasn't certain that was Noel's main reason, but it was good enough. "I guess….But we can't tell her right freaking now. See, for one, we've got breakfast to eat and we need to figure out how to tell her for another." Noel nodded slowly in agreement for standing up and following the red clad swordsman out of the room.

They only got ten minutes for breakfast, which normally wouldn't be too much to ask for the two, but Noel was still stumbling from sleep and Ragna's muscles were freaking sore from all the walking, running, fighting, and swimming he had done since the week began.

Once they were done, the party headed off to meet up with Flynn. Unfortunately, there was an unwelcome third person in the room.

"Tch, you?!" Ragna hissed, Rita echoing him.

Magistrate Ragou gave them a mock-curious look. "Yes? Have we met?"

Yuri raised a hand to stop Rita from attacking the man while Noel silently clung to Ragna's sleeve. The dark haired swordsman straightened and met Ragou's eyes. "Huh, convenient time for amnesia, huh? I know someone who can fix that for you."

"Amnesia? I'm terribly sorry, but this is the first time we've met." Ragou pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Ragna twitched angrily, grumbling swears and insults under his breath. "Are you crazy?!" Karol snapped, looking as mad as the rest of the group felt.

Flynn shook his head. "Magistrate, your guilt is undeniable. These people have seen everything."

"As I was just saying," Ragou said, "Someone had assumed my identity and was trying to ruin my reputation. It was most upsetting."

"Liar!" Rita screamed. "I saw those people that you fed to the monsters with my own eyes!"

Ragou tutted. "Well, Sir Flynn? Are you going to listen to this group of ruffians or me, a member of the imperial Council?"

When Flynn didn't say a word, Yuri stared at him, somewhat shocked. "Should've known." Ragna hissed. "You can almost never trust the freaking authorities."

The magistrate smiled coldly. "That's all settled then. I bid you all good day." Before he left, Ragou bowed briefly to the young blond man who had not yet said a word. Ioder bowed back.

Rita growled in frustration as the door shut. "Who does that guy think he is?!"

"Unfortunately, he thinks he's a magistrate, and in this case, he's correct." Noel mumbled sadly.

Ignoring the blond, the mage spun on her foot. "And who the hell is that?!" The brunette jabbed an angry finger at Ioder.

"This is…" Flynn trailed off.

Estelled picked up where he left off. "This is His Royal Highness, Ioder, candidate for the royal throne."

Karol laughed weakly. "Hahahaa…Yeah right…That's a good one Estelle…" He glanced around, realizing he was the only one laughing. "Um…what?"

"I am only one of the candidates." Ioder smiled.

"It's true. With the passing of the previous emperor, Master Ioder is the rightful heir to the throne." Flynn assured them.

"R-really?"

Ioder smiled again. "Yes."

Yuri hummed lightly. "An alleged imperial heir captured by a so called magistrate. _That's_ interesting."

"And suspicious." Noel murmured, frowning into her hand. Ragna couldn't help but agree. Why would Ragou do that, besides being a complete ass hat?

"I see…" Estelle glanced at Flynn. "So this incident means that I…"

"A little too juicy for public consumption, huh?" Yuri drawled. He seemed somewhat irritated by the secrets. The pinkette began to stutter but the dark haired swordsman shook his head. "It's got something to do with your decision to leave the castle, right?" Yuri turned away from her. "Do whatever you want. I've got no interest in an empire that just sits there and does nothing while their people is suffering in plain sight."

Flynn pursed his lips. "Yuri…What have you changed by turning your back on the empire?"

"You can change a lot." Ragna growled. "By turning your back on a corrupt government."

The blond glared at him. "We need just laws laid down by the government to ensure the people that they can live lives of stability and peace."

Noel frowned. "I don't see how the laws that are currently in place are very 'just' or 'fair', as Ragou, who has been hurting the citizens of the town he was in charge of and kidnapped Ioder, just walked out of the room with no consequences at all." Yuri nodded in agreement.

"But that's why Yuri and I became knights. To change the empire…" The blond stared at his friend's back. "If we couldn't change it by yelling about it from below…"

Yuri spun around, a dark glare on his face. Flynn flinched back, surprised. "So, in order to get ahead in life, I'm supposed to _stand by_ while some _monster_ feeds little kids to monsters? Is that it?" His fists were clasped so tightly, blood dripped from the palm of his hands. "You want me to look the other way when our people in the lower quarter are being bled dry by taxes?! It's because I can't do those things that I quit the knights!"

Flynn moved back slightly. "…I-I know. But has anything changed because you quit?"

"I bet he has a better conscience." Ragna growled.

Flynn clutched a fist. "Shut up! What would you know?"

Ragna scoffed. "We've done more in the short time we've been traveling then you've probably done the whole time you've been a knight!"

The blond was shaking in anger but Estelle raised a hand. "P-please! Stop! Don't argue anymore!" Yuri shook his head and left the room. Sneering at Flynn, Ragna and Noel left as well.

Flynn let out a deep breath. "D-dammit…I've done it again." Estelle touched his arm, concern on her face. "I only want him to stop sitting around and move on with his life…then that idiot butted in…"

"Ragna isn't normally like that." Estelle assured the blond. "He's usually a lot nicer….I don't know why he dug into the empire like that."

"He doesn't like the empire." Rita said in an off-hand way. "And to be frank, Noel doesn't either."

Estelle turned towards Rita. "Eh? Why?"

"Well, ever since Flynn mentioned that Hazama guy, Ragna has been even more anti-empire." The female brunette shrugged lightly. "Maybe he knows him and just really doesn't like that Hazama?"

* * *

"Tch, that guy is an asshole."

"Ragna! He isn't that bad. He's a lot like Tsubaki…thinking he can reverse the corruption from the inside."

"Well, that idiot should know better, especially when Hazama is around…"

"…I know…"

* * *

Yuri punched a fist into the wall. "Dammit! That guy really knows how to get to me."

"Its okay, Yuri. To change big things, you have to start with small things." Noel said softly.

He gave her a pointed look. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

Noel wilted slightly. "W-well…People will see that you, who don't have to help anyone and is an imperial criminal, helping people and the empire doing nothing, that can get people to raise arms." Noel tipped her head to the side. "I-if everyone in the empire raises arms against a corrupt government, they would have no choice but to change."

Both of the swordsman stared at her before Ragna spoke up. "I never knew you could speak so well." Noel puffed out her cheeks and stared smacking his chest lightly with both fists, wailing about how much of an idiot he was. The silverette just took the punishment with a grin and laugh.

* * *

"So…What're we going to do now?"

"Find out where Barbos went. If we can convince him to tell the empire what he knows…"

"…Then they'll have no choice but to arrest Ragou? Tch, knowing that bastard, he'd probably just claim he's never seen Barbos once in his life."

"Even so…"

"We've got to try, right?"

* * *

"Look!" Noel pointed across the courtyard where a familiar purple coat was hanging about a set of benches. "Isn't that Raven?"

Yuri nodded and the trio moved over to the man. He had been about to leave the dark haired swordsman called his name. "O-oh…hey there. Long time, no see?"

"Isn't there something else you should be saying?" Yuri said brightly as Raven winced.

"S-something else?" He rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, can't think of anything."

Yuri placed a hand on his hips while Ragna growled. "Stop messing around, you jackass."

Raven gasped, taking on a faux hurt look. "I'm just terribly misunderstand, honest." _Noel_ rolled her eyes at that.

"Well, then you need to see a doctor for your incocnious tendency to cause trouble for others." Yuri snarked at the ponytailed man.

"Ya might see a doctor for that foul mouth of yers, too." Raven gave him a smarmy grin (Ragna wanted to punch him).

The dark swordsman smirked. "Got a comeback for everything, huh? If you don't stop pultzing around, the knights might throw you back in jail."

"Heh. The knights are a bit too busy to deal with me."

Noel tipped her head to side. "Why is that?"

The ponytailed man crooned at her and it only the terrifying glare and aura of doom from Ragna that made him step back. Raven coughed slightly. "Well, I saw a rough looking guild moving north not too long ago. It's not like the knight can rightly ignore them, eh?"

"Was it the Blood Alliance?" Ragna asked, his mismatched eyes narrowed.

"Beats the heck outta me."

Yuri shook his head. "By the way, why were you at Ragou's place?"

"Me?" Raven scratched his scruffy goatee. For some reason, it made Ragna think of that idiot, Bang. "I was looking for 'apatheia.'"

"Apatheia?"

"I think I've heard Rita mention it." Noel said with a frown. "But only by name. She never went further than that."

The dark swordsman 'hnn'ed softly. Raven shook his head. "Apatheia are supposed to be these really strong cores. Head there was one there, but I guess the info was wrong."

Over Noel's head, Ragna and Yuri exchanged looks. Why would Raven be searching for these 'Apatheia?'

"Yuuuuri! Raaagnaaa! Noeeeel! Over hereeee!"

Noel looked over her shoulder. "Karol?"

Rita stomped her foot from her spot on the other side of the court yard. "You! I'll get you, old man!" Raven stepped back.

"Maybe I should get out of here…"

Yuri laughed slightly. "Yeah. The Amazoness has emerged."

Ragna almost reached out and grabbed Raven's coat to let Rita beat the snot out of him, but a quick glance at Noel, who seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do, stopped him. Rita streaked past the trio after the ponytailed man, screaming profanities.

Karol looked surprised. "W-why'd you let him g-get away?"

"He said he was terribly misunderstood." Ragna snorted at Yuri. Yeah right.

"Haaaa?" Karol didn't seem to understand, and judging by her face, neither did Noel.

The mage returned, looking even more irritated then before. "Drat, he got away…I'll get that bugger one day."

"Don't bother wasting your energy on those types of guys." Estelle appeared. "You okay, Estelle?" The pinkette nodded weakly to Yuri's question. "You can take a little break. Then we've got to go."

"Go? Go where?" Karol whined slightly.

Noel clasped her hands. "After that guild from earlier, of course!"

"So, we have a lead?" Estelle questioned. She received a light nod.

"They're heading north, apparently." Ragna shrugged.

The male brunette cross his arms in thought. "The only town I can think of that's directly north of here…is that one town that was destroyed in an earthquake."

"Really?" Noel looked somewhat saddened. "But wait…if we go north, then we'll leave the shore." The party, sans Estelle, looked at her in a way that said 'Well, duh.' The blond pouted. "I just kind of like hearing the sound of the ocean is all."

"But..." Ragna crossed his arms over his chest, trying to hide his exasperation (Noel and Estelle were sharing in their sadness of leaving the sea behind). "Why would they want in a city destroyed by a damn earthquake?"

Yuri looked somewhat interested. "That's a good question."

"And yet you still want to go?" Rita grumbled.

Yuri grinned at the mage. She shrunk back slightly, eyeing him warily. "I'm just saying we should check it out."

* * *

"So." Rita deadpanned. "You said you wanted to head out, yet we're staying the night here again?"

Yuri sniffed in a mock-delicate way. "Now, now, Rita. Everyone is so exhausted from the past couple weeks that we deserve a day of rest!"

The mage rolled her eyes. "If you can call this resting…"

"I swear I've seen that man before…" A man behind them mumbled under his breath. When the woman he was speaking with agreed with him, Ragan eyed them both cautiously. Did they actually recognize Yuri from that horrible wanted poster?

Later that night, Yuri was jerked awake by Ragna. "What is it…?" He mumbled, confused. Ragna jerked his head towards the door, and Yuri heard voices from beyond it. Yuri cursed slightly. "Hey, guys, wake up!"

The party was forced out of their lovely dreams (though Noel seemed to be having a nightmare) and they moved out of the room. As they disappeared out the window, they heard a knight and the man from earlier storm into the room.

"Morons." Ragan hissed under his breath.

Estelle looked incredibly tired. "W-what—" she yawned. "—Was t-that about?"

"Someone snitched on us." Yuri sighed.

Karol was obviously confused. "Snitched on us?"

Rita shook her head. "You're too well known for your own good, Yuri." He shot her a somewhat smarmy grin and received a smack over his head via Ragna for his troubles.

"Anyway, isn't the guild influence on Torim really strong?" Yuri's smirk turned mocking. "Maybe that knight was overcompensating for how impotent he must feel." Estelle started scolding him and Karol complaining about needing sleep.

Noel pulled on Ragna's sleeve. "Thanks for waking me up." Ragna gave her one of his tiny smiles before the party gathered their things and moved out of the town, thinking it safer to camp out then sleep in the Inns.

* * *

  
**Chapter 07**

**The Other Port Town**

_**END** _

* * *

**_Imperial Knights Profiling_ **

**_Ioder Argylos Heurassein_ **

An imperial royal throne candidate, he was kidnapped for a short time by an unknown. He was recently saved by a kind citizen and handed over to the Knight Captain FLYNN SCIFO.


	9. Caer Brocram

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the world, and loses his own soul?

\- Matthew 16:26

* * *

"Huh." Ragna eyed the leaves of the trees as the stepped down an ancient path. "The leaves are starting to go brown…"

"Autumn is coming." Rita mused. "So, the leaves are of course going to change color." The silverette shrugged and continued on.

A few hours later, the party stopped in front of the first set of ruined buildings. Yuri was the first to speak. "Man, this place is a total wreck."

Rita shook her head. "Do you seriously think anyone would come to this place?" The dark haired swordsman shrugged, not sure himself.

"I wonder if we've been fed false information again."

Karol wasn't paying attention. "You know, a lot of people died here." He grinned teasingly at Ragna. "There's probably lots of ghosts around here~!"

Ragna jumped slightly at the sound of 'ghosts' and began to warily eye the area around the party. There was no way he was going to be caught off guard by them! Noel, on the other hand, was giving the young brunette a scolding look for picking at Ragna's one true fear.

"Halt!"

Karol paused, looking confused. "That voice…?"

"This area is under the jurisdiction of the Hunting Blades guild!" Above them, on one of the many ruined building, stood a young girl, probably about Karol's age. She had red-brown hair and glaring yellow-green eyes. The girl wore a black body suit with a red kimono held together with a yellow tie over it. On her arms were a pair of brown bracers. In one hand she holding a large blade that set in a sort of U shape. "These measure have been taken to prevent injury to innocent bystanders."

"Nan…?!" Karol muttered, surprised. "It is you! Are the chief and Tison with you? Have you guys being getting along okay without me?"

"Don't take that buddy-buddy tone with me." Ragna narrowed his eyes. Why did this remind him of something…Something that had happened back in his and Noel's original world?

Karol sighed. "Don't be like that. I only got a little lost."

"A _little_ lost!" Nan glared at them. "That's a good one! You know you just ran away! And don't give me any excuses, you got that?!"

The hammer wielding brunette stepped back, his eyes wide. "B-but, I beat an eggbear! Just like I said I would!"

"More lies." Nan scoffed. "Is this how you repay being taken in by the Hunting Blades? Remind me who it was that said, 'I swear I won't run away this time.' You always run and hide at the first sign of trouble. You've been kicked out of every guild in the book. Hah! Even we've fired you!"

Karol flinched. "I-I…."

Noel glared. "Stop it! Can't you tell you're hurting his feelings?!"

Nan glared back. "Whatever! You have been warned by the Hunting Blades! Leave this area at once! If you fail to heed this warning, you do so at the risk of your own lives!"

The girl disappeared into the town, leaving a distraught Karol behind. Noel touched his shoulder with a gloved hand. "Are you okay…?" He gave her a weak nod, as if he wasn't quite sure himself.

"This still doesn't explain why the Hunting Blades are here." Yuri sighed. Rita shrugged and began to head into the ruins. "Hm? Where are you going?"

"What about the warning?"

Ragna shrugged for the brunette. "That bitchy brat didn't say we couldn't go into the town."

Estelle frowned. "But what about the 'risking our lives' part?"

"What?" Ragna glanced back at her. "And breaking into a magistrate's palace, jumping onto his moving boat, and then leaping into the sea after it burns doesn't count as 'risking our lives?'" The pinkette blushed a brilliant scarlet.

Rita snickered. "Besides, that would be implying that I was listening to the brat."

"At any rate, the Blood Alliance doesn't seem to be here." Yuri ruffled his long hair. "Let's have a look around." He took the lead of the party once again and they went into the mossy and cold ruins.

As they moved around, searching for anyone outside of the Hunting Blades, it began to rain. Noel had ended up hiding in Ragna's jacket (how he managed to still move normally, the party had no idea) and Rita was grumbling that she should have brought an umbrella. Unfortunately, every door they came across to shelter was locked.

"Che, of course they are…." Ragna grumbled as Karol wandered over to an odd structure in the middle of a half collapsed court yard.

He kneeled down next to it. "Huh…What sort of blastia is this…?"

Rita cursed. "Hey! Get your grubby mitts of it!" The female brunette waved him away from it before turning towards the blastia to investigate. "Of course... It's slightly different from the norm, but it looks like a type of warp blastia. Its activating mechanism is... Let's see... Huh...?"

"What's wrong?" Noel asked.

The brunette punched the air, looking mad. "...There's no activation switch! It's properly equipped with a core, and it doesn't look like it's the type where you can activate it by removing the core."

"Well, if that's that the case," Noel said, "Shouldn't there be a switch to activate it somewhere else?"

"All the doors are locked, Noel." Ragna peered down at her half crouched form in his jacket. "There's no way they can be in those rooms, because they're all locked."

She frowned. "…I've got nothing."

Rita shrugged. "That's fine. There should actually be a blastia that looks like this one nearby. Though…It may be more trouble than it's worth looking for."

"You never know," Yuri said offhandedly. "It could lead to something interesting." The mage shook her head in exasperation before standing up straight, ready to get searching.

* * *

"…Hey, Ragna?"

"…What do you want, brat?"

"Did you hear that?"

"….Hear what?"

"That weird groaning noise. It sounded kind of like a—"

"NO."

"…uh…"

"That's it. I'm done." _Glare._ "Prepare for your punishment!"

"W-wait! Ragna! NOT THE FACE!"

"Hell's Fang! Beast! CARNAGE SCISSORS!"

"ARGGGH! NOEL! HELP!"

* * *

After wandering around _again_ for a few hours (and taking a break to allow Estelle to heal poor Karol), they somehow managed to back themselves into a dead end. Rita was quietly cursing under her breath as Repede sniffed some of the nearby flora.

"It looks like a dead end…" Estelle trailed off, clasping her hands.

Yuri placed a hand on his hip, frowning "Should we head back or…?"

"Hold on, I want to check something…" Karol moved over to an odd platform in the middle of the clearing. "Aha!" He leaned towards it, before frowning. "Weird, there's not a keyhole or anything…"

"Seriously?" Ragna grumbled as Yuri passed him to look over the male brunette's shoulder.

Karol glanced at the dark haired man as he raised a leg as if to kick the platform. "Yuri! An amateur like you would never be able to open the door like—" Yuri's leg connected with the slab of iron and it popped open. "…what the…"

As Karol gapped openly at the dark swordsman, Yuri smirked. "I wouldn't want Captain Karol to dirty his hands on such a filthy door!"

Ragna snorted. "Sometimes, you can be real full of yourself, Lowell." The other swordsman just sent him a smarmy grin.

Karol moved towards the pit and peered down into, curious. What could be down there? "You know what would be terrible?" Yuri said cheerfully, "If a monster just gobbled up your foot right now? Just a giant munch, and oops, no more foot." This caused the hammer wielding brunette to fall backwards with a terrified squeak. Yuri glanced down the tunnel himself. "Hm, looks fine to me. Let's go inside."

"Hey!" As the party began to going down the ladder, Karol got back up. "What am I, your test dummy?!" Hastily following the party down the ladder, Karol began to investigate one of the devices near the wall. "What's this?"

"Get your grubby mitts off it! I don't want to have to tell you again!" Rita screeched in the male brunette's ear.

Noel stepped forward to look herself. "It looks like it could be the activation switch…" Ragna reached forward and tried to activate it, but nothing happened. "Oh….Maybe it isn't the switch?"

Rita shook her head. "It doesn't have enough aer, is all."

"Well, stand back then," Yuri said brightly. Before Rita could argue, Ragna grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the way as the dark swordsman aimed the Sorcerer's Ring at the blastia and shooting it off.

An odd ticking noises went off and the party moved back. "Do you think anything happened?" Estelle mumbled, her olive green eyes wide.

The brunette mage nodded. "You may not have noticed, but something did happen. Come on, let's get back to the collapsed courtyard."

As the rest of the party began to go back up the ladder, Noel shuffled about the room before finding a scrap of paper of the ground. Ragna looked back at her from the foot of the ladder. "Noel? Come on?" The note said 'light' and the blond stuffed it in her pocket.

When the group met up again by the blastia from earlier, the core had begun to glow softly. However…"Hold your horses." Rita scolded Estelle and Karol's enthusiasm. "This is just like in the Shaikos Ruins. If you don't fill up the core with aer, it won't work."

Yuri tapped the blastia on his finger. "So, Sorcerer's Ring again, then?" Rita nodded and the party stepped back to allow him to shoot the old blastia with aer.

The party moved around the ruins, searching themselves this way and that between the ruins of shattered buildings. None of them really found anything of much substance or to prove that the Blood Alliance was actually there. During their search, the rain began to lighten up and Noel finally stopped hiding in Ragna's coat.

However, during their search, they soon found a small gathering of people nearby. Yuri sighed at the sight of them. "Well, damn…"

"Looks like the Blood Alliance isn't here." Ragna shrugged lightly.

"That's the Hunting Blades…" Karol mumbled.

Estelle gasped suddenly. "T-that man…! We saw him in Deidon Hold!" Yuri nodded in agreement, recognizing the red haired man himself.

Karol nodded. "Yeah, that's Clint, the leader of the hunting blades."

"Oh!" Noel stared as the red haired man known as Clint slowly stepped towards a large wolf-like beast. "Is he going to take on that monster by himself?!" To the party's surprise, Clint was able to slash down and kill the monster in a single attack.

Rita gapped. "No way! He took it out in one blow!"

"That," Karol said proudly, "was a Fatal Strike."

"Fatal Strike?"

Karol puffed out his chest proudly. "It's a crazy-powerful technique that extremely skilled swordsmen can use."

Both Yuri and Ragna, understandably, were curious. "And how, exactly, do you use it?"

"'Fatal strike-A strong attack which throws your opponent off balance, followed by a single, well-timed strike to finish the enemy.'"

Rita shot Estelle a slightly creped out look. "You have insane memory, do you realize that?" The pinkette blushed deeply.

Yuri ran a hand through his hair. "I see…."

"Sounds easier said than done." Ragna grumbled.

The female mage glanced at a saddened Karol. "You really want to go back to that guild, don't you?" Karol started stuttering, looking shocked and confused.

"Eh?" Noel and Estelle turned to the hammer wielder. "Are you going back to that guild, Karol?"

"I won't go back...! I'm sick and tired of monster hunting." The male brunette clutched his fists as he glared at the ground.

The female brunette shook her head. "Doesn't sound like you could go back if you wanted to."

Karol looked away. "A-anyway…this is the first time I've seen so many members together and Clint doesn't come out so often either. I wonder what's going on….Should we follow them?"

"I thought we were looking for Blood Alliance?" Noel asked, scratching Repede behind his ears.

"True." Yuri tapped his leg with his sheathed blade. "Let's get going and find that guild instead."

* * *

"Hey, Noel? What are those scraps of paper for?"

"Huh? These? I found them scattered around the houses here."

"Seriously? You need to stop picking up random things."

"Ragna! It may be important for all we know. I mean, they all have words! Like, Light, Sky, and sphere!"

"Yeah, _maybe_ …"

* * *

Yet another monster fight. Yuri eyed the monsters in front of him. "Hm…"

"What is it Yuri?" Karol asked from behind him.

"I want to try that thing."

"Thing?"

Ragna sighed. "He means that Fatal Strike thing, right?" Yuri nodded.

Karol groaned. "You can't just imitate what you saw and hope it'll work...!" The dark swordsman shrugged in a way that said 'Don't know if I don't try.' "Ugh, fine…Look, first, you go and attack the enemy to throw it off balance..."

"Alrighty~"

"Wha—" The hammer wielder gave Yuri and deadpan look. "'Alrighty?'"

After a few consecutive attack, Yuri suddenly grinned. "I see it!"

Noel blinked. "See what?"

Yuri didn't answer with word; Instead, he slashed his sword straight through the monster, ending the fight in a single blow.

"Woah." Rita mumbled from next to Estelle.

The silverette grinned suddenly. "Oi, Lowell, my turn!" Ragna leaned forward and almost easily imitated the move—Though, unlike Yuri, he mumbled very softly something that sounded like 'Dead Spike.' "Wasn't actually that hard to do."

Yuri laughed and the party moved on after finishing the last couple of monsters.

During their newest investigation, Yuri began to scold Karol for his lack of confidence in his own skills. Noel helped the swordsman by telling the male brunette about all of his strong points. While they finished their pep talk, Ragna spotted an odd cavern-like room up ahead.

Rita whistled lightly. "Geez, that is one long stair case." Before them was a tall spiral staircase that lead down. Left with no choice but to head down, they began the trek into the shadowy darkness below.

When they got down to the bottom floor, a strange heavy feeling fell down on Ragna and Noel's shoulders. Just with a quick glance was enough to assume the others in the party felt it too. "W-what is this?" Noel stuttered, her arms wrapped around her. "It feels like…Someone is pressing down on me…Screaming in my ear to die…"

Ragna shushed her, keeping close. It was all he could do not to freak out himself, as every fiber of his being was screaming 'BAD IDEA.'

"Seriously, what's going on? Ever since we got here..." Rita shuddered.

Karol was making gagging noises. "If a monster attacked us right now, I don't think I'd be up to it." Yuri let out a weak laugh, like he was about to tease the boy again when Estelle began to collapse. Ragna would have helped, but he was a bit busy just trying to keep himself and Noel steady.

Yuri let out a sigh, scolding Estelle. "If you're going to keel over, couldn't you do it in the middle of a crowded city street? I can't be expected to be there to catch you every time." The pinkette smiled weakly before assuring the man that she really was okay.

"T-this is Aer…" Rita mumbled. Karol was shocked, but Yuri agreed with her, mentioning that Estelle had collapsed before due to extremely concentrated Aer. "Really? Woah…"

The dark swordsman crossed his arms. "I think we should get out of here…"

"But… the mercenaries…" Noel gasped from her spot against Ragna's shoulder. Yuri winced and sighed when Estelle echoed her.

He ran a hand through the ends of his hair. "…That's true, but…" A glare from both Estelle and Noel made Yuri shut up very quickly.

Rita, in an attempt to calm the group down, began to investigate an odd blastia machine by the nearby vault door. "Hmmm….It looks like this blastia is connected to that door somehow. To open the door, It seems that we have to carefully put together the symbols to form the right phrase."

"Can't we just break it?"

"Not a good idea." Rita placed hand on her chin. "That might make the door stop working altogether." She tapped several of the buttons before something began coming out, Yuri observed aloud. "I'm guessing we should just put some letters in here." Rita mumbled.

Noel's eyes lit up and she began rifling through her pockets. "Light…Sphere….Sky…Those are the clues! What could it be…?"

Estelle leaned on a nearby wall. "That…Wouldn't that be the sun?" Rita clapped her hands and a grin lit up her face before she typed it into the blastia machine. The vault door opened up and the group nodded as one before heading into the huge room beyond it.

When they entered the room, Karol stared in wonder at what the party all saw. "That water….It's floating?"

"The blastia is probably responsible for that," Ragna said, "And that feeling we've been getting"

Rita approached it with a frown. Getting as close as she could, the mage began her investigation into its power. "…huh? He's the same as the blastia on Ehmead Hill and Capua Nor…"

"Is it…Broken?"

The mad shook her head. "When a blastia breaks, it loses its ability to take in aer. There's no way it would get like this." Placing her hand on her chin, she began to think deeply. Estelle questioned her on what could be happening, but the brunette shrugged slightly. "Don't know…"

A roar shook the walls and floor and Karol squeaked. "M-M-Monster?!"

Yuri grabbed the boy's arm. "Calm down," He said sternly, "None of us are feeling well and there aren't any doctors here."

"H-huh? B-but…but I…" Another roar shook the room and Karol screamed, grabbing Yuri's arm. Yuri winced slightly but noted that the barrier seemed to be shaking.

When he mentioned this to Rita, the girl shook her head. "It's fine. It's Reverse Barrier, which means it'll keep the monster in." She bit her lip, seemingly very nervous. "But…The Aer here….It isn't normal."

Ragna growled. "I've got a bad feeling…" Noel whimpered into his shoulder.

"O-oh no!" Karol yelled, looking horrified. "The barrier—It's disappearing!"

Rita groaned before hurrying over to the blastia. "I-I'll have it fixed in no time at all!" Yuri hurried over to her side. Repede barked slightly, keeping close to the dark haired swordsman.

"So~! Who are the idiots who didn't listen to our friendly warning?"

The party jerked their heads up to see the speaker. Said man was one of a trio: The other two were obviously Clint and Nan. Yuri gave them a good natured smile, moving closer to Rita. "Sorry. None of us are nice enough to take your 'friendly' warning seriously."

Karol hissed at the swordsman to at least take the man, whose name was apparently 'Tison', seriously. Tison on the other merely scoffed. "Humph. You don't say... Well now, if it isn't that runt Karol who got his sorry butt cut from the team."

"Never mind, I take it back, Yuri." The male brunette growled.

"The aer must be affecting 'em. It looks pretty thick over there." Tison observed.

Clint 'humph'ed. "That's just what we want. You all just sit tight and behave yourselves. We're only interested in taking out this big brute." He gave them a dismissive wave.

Ragna frowned. Was he the only one who could hear that odd rumbling sound? Evidently, he was, as Yuri continued on as if nothing was happening. "You sure talk big. Taking care of a pet is a big responsibility, you know. Don't go abandoning him for someone else to take care of." Repede barked his agreement before growling, apparently having heard the same thing as the silverette.

What was causing the noise was soon exposed, as the Dragon Ride appeared from above. Again, he attacked the blastia, with Rita screaming at him all the way. The force of the blast sent shockwaves around and the brunette mage nearly fell off the edge of the catwalk—If Yuri hadn't grabbed her arm. "You okay, Mordio?" He mumbled.

"Fine." The girl blushed.

Estelle touched a hand to her chest. "I feel…better." Noel murmured her agreement and Ragna touched her head briefly to show his support: He felt much better himself.

Unfortunately, thanks to the Dragon Rider destroying the blastia, the barrier had gone down. Which meant the monster it had been trapping previously was now free and on a rampage. On the other hand, Rita was screaming at the Dragon Rider. "Of course! That dragon freak broke the blastia! You're dead freak! Dead!"

Above them, Clint and the Hunting Blades were battling both the freed monster and the Dragon Rider. They were having a real bad time at it, as the rider slammed Tison against the wall, Clint was unable to even get close to the monster, and Nan was stuck in the middle, dodging blasts. Meanwhile, below, the group was having a hard time just standing on their feet with the ground shaking beneath their feet and pieces of the ceiling above falling down on their heads.

The pinkette of the group forced herself back to her feet. "...I've never seen anything like it before..." Karol was whimpered as the beast appeared before them.

Yuri tutted as he braced his sword against his shoulder. "I guess we gotta take care of someone else's pet."

**BOSS**

**Dreaded Giant**

It actually looked like a giant deformed blue turtle. That was probably Ragna's first thought before the monster slapped its tail into his chest. Rita was steadying herself by a nearby wall and Noel was barfing behind a piece of debris.

The silverette groaned as he touched a hand to his chest. That had hurt. Forcing himself back to his feet, and moved forward to help Yuri and Repede defend themselves against Dreaded Giant.

He ended up having leap up to dodge the monster's attack, which was caused by it slamming its humongous front legs onto the ground. Ragna rolled under its body and stabbed into the soft under belly. It roared in response.

Dodging another attack, he skidded to a stop next to Estelle, who had just joined the battle. "Are you okay?" She asked in concern.

"Just my chest." He muttered.

Estelle nodded and healed him before the two ran into battle. Only a couple of seconds, Noel appeared and created a Fatal Strike against the monster. Rita was casting a chain of spells at the turtle-like creature.

Yuri dodged a swipe at his head. "Hey there guys! Have you seen Captain Karol?"

"No!" Ragna cried back as Noel shot the monster several time sint he mouth. It roared at her in response. "Oi, Yuri!" The silverette yelled. "We should attack at the same time—It'll cause more damage!"

The other swordsman nodded in agreement and the two dashed forward and attacked the under belly of the turtle-like beast as one. The creature roared in anger before stumbling away down a large hole in a wall nearby. The Dragon Rider vanished, following after it.

Estelle half collapsed to her knees. "We made it…"

Rita was looking around, obviously tired. "Where's….Karol?"

"He must've left ahead of us." Yuri shrugged. Ragna frowned. He hadn't seen the young brunette in the battle at all. What happened?

Noel glanced up. "Is…Oh no…The ceiling isn't going to hold!" Yuri cursed and the party quickly dashed out of the collapsing tower.

As they ran, Ragna snorted. "I'm so not surprised that the room was collapsing. I'm more surprised it held up for as long as it did…" Noel giggled weakly from beside him.

The group was able to escape the collapsing building via the spiral staircase they had used original to get down there in the first place. Ragan groaned in irritation at the sight of heavy rain. Noel squeaked and hid under the silverette's jacket once again. He simply pulled his black hood up over his head.

When they arrived near the collapsed courtyard, it was to see Nan chewing out Karol. "Something comes up, and it's just POOF, you're gone! You're always, always running away by yourself!" Nan was glowering down at the male brunette.

"I-It's not like that!" Karol stuttered. His argument was shattered when Nan barked at him about how much a loser he was. "L-like I said…back in Halure…"

She growled. "I'm not talking about Halure! If you're not ashamed of anything, then shouldn't you hurry back to your friends?" Karol wilted. "No need to explain to me. I think you've got other people who'll listen to you." Karol 'haaah'ed in question when he turned and saw the party approaching them.

Estelle clasped her hands. "Oh, Karol, I'm so glad you're safe!"

Rtia scowled. "Where the hell did you go? We were really in a jam back there."

"Could've been worse." Ragna shrugged. "You coulda been squashed by that guy. I'd rather not've seen your guts, ya know." Karol stuttered in surprise.

"Hey, at least you made it out in one piece." Yuri ruffled the hammer wielder's hair when the boy apologized quietly.

Nan scoffed under her breath. "I'm leaving." When Karol turned to ask her to wait, the blade user rolled her eyes. "You think long and hard about what you've done. That's all I have to say to you." She quickly left, leaving Karol to slump over in depression, Yuri still happily ruffling his hair.

"Cut it out!" Karol waved his hand at Yuri's hand.

The swordsman gave Karol a serious look. "Let's get going, Karol. We're all tired." The hammer wielder nodded slowly, his brown eyes wide in surprise.

"Well, the Blood Alliance wasn't here…," Noel said sadly from her spot under Ragna's jacket. "Too bad. I wonder why Raven gave us false information…"

Yuri punched the bridge of his nose. "Technically, it wasn't. He said it _might_ be the Blood Alliance." Rita was muttering her violent plans to take out the man in the purple coat.

"….L-let's just take it back on our way back." Estelle sighed. The rest of the group began to leave the wet ruins, Karol lagging behind, a tired and frustrated look on his face.

The party began down the path back to where they originally entered the ruins to begin with. Ragna was hesitant to do so, because all of his 'You're walking into a Trap' senses were screaming at him. But how the hell was he supposed to explain that to the others?

Unfortunately for him, his point was proven when they ran into a group of knight at the entrance to the earthquake wrecked city. "Ah, the common rabble. So I've finally found you. That's far enough." A long, blue haired man sniffed in disdain.

"You lackeys must have had a lot of time on your hands if you crossed the ocean just to see us." Yuri snarked.

Cumore, the cruel knight, scoffed. "Humph... You're in no position to talk down to the likes of me. Now, Princess, right this way."

"Princess…?" Both Karol and Noel seemed very confused by the title. Who were they talking about?

"The Princess here," Yuri said, waving at the pinkette next to him.

Estelle shot him a shocked look. "Yuri…You…knew?"

Karol's mouth had fallen open, shock on his face. Rita shrugged, showing that she had either known or had figured it out, much like Yuri had. Ragna rolled his eyes. "I've met a noble girl before. Even if your personality is like the exact opposite of hers, you both hold yourselves the same. Add to the fact that you were on first name basis with Prince Ioder…"

The pinkette flushed, realizing her mistake. Then, she shook her head. "If I go with you, what will happen to my friends?"

"Why, they'll be drawn and quartered for abducting a member of the royal family, of course."

"What?" Estelle looked horrified. "You can't…!"

Cumore scoffed. "Ah, what a mouthy young lady you are. This way, please!" He gestured for the knights to grab her while Karol _and_ Noel both stepped forward, obviously intent on defending her. "Now die like the flies you are!"

However, before he could make any more actions, a voice interrupted him. "Arrest the culprit Yuri Lowell and his accomplices!"

"Gah..!" The knight glowered at the new arrivals. "The Schwann Brigade!"

The two brigades began to argue about, apparently, who had the right to arrest Yuri. The dark haired swordsman was laughing slightly, amused.

Finally, Cumore gave in. "...Humph... I suppose I can let you have these little worms." The knight began his walk away. "If it isn't Schwann, it's Flynn. These upstart commoners are so full of themselves...Even that Commandant."

With his final words said, the knights that had been with him followed his example.

Leblanc nodded to himself. "This way please, Your Highness. Do watch your step…"

"Oh, but…" Estelle mumbled.

"Arrest them in the name of Captain Schwann!" Leblanc cheered.

Mr. Tall and Lanky laughed obnoxiously. "Okay, Yuri Lowell gang, it's curtains for you, I say!" Rita squawked at the 'Yuri Lowell gang' title.

Ragna, on the other hand, rolled his eyes. "What, is that the most creative thing you can come up with?" Karol was telling them he hadn't done anything (Which was technically true, but you know).

"Don't hurt them!" Estelle cried. "I beg you…!"

"Estelle, stop. We'll be fine." Yuri assured her as they were dragged away. He glowered slightly at the knight who jerked his wrists. "Ow! Hey, watch it with the pulling...!"

Leblanc turned to the hill nearby, saluting it. "Sir Schwann! We shall take these undesirables to Heilord!" Apparently, the brightly colored figure they saw standing over on top of it was Schwann. Leblanc turned to the arrested party. "All members! Fall out!"

"Tch…"Ragna muttered softly. "Finally arrested, and it's not even for any crime I actually committed."

* * *

  
**Chapter 08**

**Caer Brocram**

_**END** _


	10. Out of Jail Free Card

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

\- Albert Camus

* * *

Rachel sighed lightly as Kokonoe slammed her hands on the console, cursing her lungs out. "You are as vulgar as always."

The pink beastkin shot the vampire princess a dirty look. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?! You may have told me how to do that 'Beyond the Barrier' traveling shit, but I still haven't been able to get it to work right in the simulations!"

"I have already told you." The twin tail sighed again. "The only way to do it properly is with the help of That Man. But why he allowed Terumi access to it is beyond my understanding."

Kokonoe groaned. "I don't care if you don't understand! You need to help or some shit if we're going to figure out how to get those two idiots back to our world! I mean, weren't you the one that said that Ragna was one of our best bets to beating Terumi?!"

Rachel took a sip from her tea cup that she literally pulled from thin air. "Well, yes I did. However, I do believe that while I will be able to get to that world, I will not be able to bring the two back with me."

"Why not?"

"Because they arrived there in different means that I myself would have," Rachel said coolly, "And even with that, I do not yet know which world they have ended up in, so it would currently be completely pointless to attempt it."

The beastkin scowled at her before turning back to the panels. "Che, I'm going to rerun the simulations with new variables. And Tager?" Kokonoe glared over her shoulder at the Red Devil, who had been trying to hide behind the door frame. "Get back to work! Our work load is _double_ because _someone_ stole that masked bastard, Hakumen…" She switched her glare to Rachel before going back to her computers.

"My, my, how rude." Rachel finished her tea. "I did not _steal_ him, as you say. Though, I cannot help but wonder where that Mr. Hero has gone off to…"

* * *

"AHEM! Continuing on, we will review the particulars of your 18th crime!" Leblanc announced loudly.

Ragna snickered. "18th?"

Yuri shrugged. "Could be anything. Go on please." He gestured to the knight to continue, whom gave him an irritated look.

"Is it true that you threw a knight sent to collect the taxes into the river?"

The dark swordsman grinned. "Wow, I'd forgotten about that. Was that you, Tweedle A?"

Ragna was suppressing his laughter, though you could tell he was tyring not to laugh due to his shaking shoulders. Noel was the only one, however, to notice and was sending the man scolding looks for it. "...How many more of these are there? This is getting pretty boring." Yuri yawned at the man's indignation.

"So, I'll write you have 'no signs of remorse' in the report then..." The short tubby man grumbled. Ragna still didn't know his name.

The silverette rolled his eyes. "Oi, where's the captain of your squad? Schwann, or whatever. Aren't the captains supposed to be around during interrogations?"

Rita sniffed in disdain. "Probably playing hooky because he's the big shot." The knight glowered at her in rage for her rather dismissive words. One scolded her for insulting him by claiming that he was far too busy for this. "So basically, his eminence would never stoop so low as to deal with nobodies like us!"

"Quiet, I say! Quiet!" Mr. Too Tall roared. "Getting on to your next offense...!"

While the party was trying hard to pay attention (not really), the door of the room opened and a man walked in. Said man had silvery hair and a red-orange ensemble to match his armor. On one side of him was a woman with long ears and dark blue eyes. For some reason or another, she was giving Ragna and Noel a confused look. Of course, neither of them noticed, as they were both busy glaring pure doom at the man on knight's other side.

This man was clearly Terumi Yuki, Ragna's most hated enemy and the one who had been searching to kill for many years. Noel _hated_ this guy, which is the most telling of this guy's personality.

Sadly, Terumi seemed way too happy to see the two and was delighting in their inability to straight up jump up and kill him right then.

Ragna gritted his teeth. Between keeping himself seated so he didn't send Noel flying (The blond was clutching his hand like a life line) and the actual pain from her hand gripping his, the silverette couldn't do much.

Leblanc was so busy groveling to the Commandent that the only one to notice the duo's reactions to Hazama was Rita. She frowned. Why would they…?

Alexei gave the party a light nod. "All your crimes are hereby pardoned by the good graces of their Highnesses Estellise and Ioder."

"What?!" Leblanc looked taken aback. "But these foul criminals have disturbed the peace of the empire…!"

The Commandant ignored him. "The Imperial Knights thank you for rescuing Prince Ioder and protecting Princess Estellise."

The blue haired woman stepped forward, obviously nervous to be close to Ragna and Noel. "P-please take this." A small bag was passed along, coins clinking against each other inside.

To the surprise of the party, Yuri tosses it back to the woman. "We've got no need for this. It's not like we did those things for the sake of the Knights."

Noel nodded fiercely. "We did all those things because we wanted to help!" _I think you're forgetting we were only involved with half the stuff that happened_ , Ragna thought.

Alexei nodded slowly. "I see…" The silver haired man turned to leave but was stopped by Yuri's inquiry about Estelle. "She has just given her consent to be returned to the imperial capital." Was his answer from the Commandant.

"What? ...Well, I guess she is a princess, after all." Karol gasped before wilting at his own words.

The commandant nodded once. "The Princess is waiting at the inn. We would be pleased if you made an appearance." He then left, the woman following him. Hazama glanced back with that mocking smile before he left the room himself.

"Asshole." Ragna grumbled under his breath as the party followed after them.

Once they were outside, Karol stopped, looking sad. "So…Estelle is going back home…" He kicked the ground.

When Rita asked if Yuri was okay with her leaving, the dark swordsman just shrugged. Part of Rita was singing with joy at his answer while the other was utterly confused by this reaction. Why would she be happy about Estelle leaving?

"More importantly, where are we?" Yuri frowned, his arms crossed.

Karol looked up. "This is the city of Heilord. It was only just recently built. It's still a very new town. If you follow this road to the east you'll hit Caer Bocram, where we were earlier. Cut through the west and go to the northwest to reach Dahngrest."

Yuri expressed his desire to look around the city and, in the end, Karol was the only one to head back to the Inn. On the other hand, Rita, Ragna, and Noel moved to a secluded area to talk. "So what is it that you wanted to talk about?" The brunette mage asked, a light frown on her lips.

Noel clasped her hands. "Um…this is going to sound totally insane."

"Yeah? Then maybe you should tell me."

"Just shut up and listen." Ragna rolled his eyes. "To start with, we're from another world and we're stuck here thanks to Terumi being a freaking ass." Rita had a disbelieving look on her face and looked ready to question them, but the silverette doesn't give her a chance.

"Terumi is that green haired bastard that was with Alexei. He had some weird ass ball that he basically threw at me and Noel. But, somehow, a…friend of ours, Tao, attacked it and it cracked open near us. Instead of being dragged off with us, Tao was left behind but Terumi was brought with us."

Rita raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that Tao wasn't brought with you?"

"Oh, we'd know." Noel shook her head with fond exasperation.

After this explanation and then the story about their home world, Rita finally gives in. "Alright, there's no way you could have made up a story that complicated without it being true. But why the hell are you telling me all this?"

Ragna leaned back against the nearest wall. "We were hoping you could help us find a way home…" Noel mumbled, her hands clasped.

The brunette rubbed her temples, looking tired. "I don't know. It might not be possible. I mean…if that orb was a one way shot…If I had seen it, I might be able to answer that." Rita closed her eyes. "I'll try the best with what I have."

"Don't push yourself." Noel scolded. "Take your time. Terumi is stuck here too, so he's not as powerful nor will he be able to take over our world while he's here. So we have time."

Rita shrugged and the trio decided to head back to the Inn, where Karol was wandering around the entrance hall alone. Only a couple minutes later, Yuri appeared from down the hall. "Hey," Rita said, "I thought you went to see Estellise?"

"She seems to be asleep already. She must have been exhausted today. I didn't want to wake her up. We can still talk tomorrow." The other muttered their agreement with the dark swordsman before they headed off to their rooms.

* * *

"Ugh…" The next morning, Noel looked somewhat sick about something or else. Ragna wondered if it had anything to do with that annoying noise that had been echoing through the night air throughout the night.

Outside of their two bed room, Yuri was giving Repede a concerned look. "What's the matter, Repede?"

Karol crossed his arms. "Did you guys hear that weird noise last night? Heck, I hear it a little bit right now."

"Now that you mention it…" Rita frowned. "It kept interrupting my work."

The inn keeper informs them then that the blastia had been acting up for some time. "Hold your horses!" Yuri snapped, grabbing her arm. "I can tell, you didn't get much sleep last night! Commandant Alexei is there, isn't he? He should be able to take care of it." The girl wilted under his gaze before grumbling. "Well, if you want, we could at least let Flynn know about it."

The mage finally gave in and the party left the inn. Half way from the Inn, they started passing the blastia. Against Yuri's advice, Rita began to investigating the blastia. She stopped, however, when Estelle appeared on the scene. "Rita, please wait! After all, I've heard that the Imperial Knights have made some repairs on the blastia here."

The brunette mumbled to herself something along the lines of 'fine' and 'what the freak ever' and stepped away from the tall blastia. Yuri touched her arm briefly (Noel let out a secretive, knowing grin) before turning his attention to the pinkette. "It's okay for you to be wandering around like this?"

"Yes... But can I stay with you until it's time to return to Zaphias?"

Yuri shrugged. "I'm fine with it. What about you guys?" Ragna shrugged: He didn't care either way. Noel vehemently said she was fine with it and Rita averted her eyes: She still had no idea what she wanted.

Karol grinned. "Looks like you're stuck with us, Estelle." The pinkette smile kindly at the male brunette.

Estelle had rejoined the group and they now had a new mission; Find Flynn and ask about the blastia. With that in mind, the party moved towards the knight barracks. Inside, Flynn stood alone. Yuri didn't bother asking about the lack of other knights. Instead, he focused on the blastia problem. "The barrier blastia's been making some odd noises lately. Do you think it's okay?"

"You came all the way here because you were worried about that? As always, Yuri, you can't leave well enough alone if you see anything amiss." Flynn sighed.

"Ah, well—"

"No, it was me." Rita snapped. "It's obvious that there's something not right with that blastia! Let me have a look at it!"

Flynn rubbed the bridge of his nose. A Headache? "This blastia is currently in a state of repair. I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to examine it."

"Why?!" Rita screamed in his face. Unfortunately he was not able to continue as the entire area suddenly started shaking like crazy. While everyone was getting their balance back, Rita was running out of the building, a panicked look on her face.

"What was that…?" Noel mumbled. Flynn, on the other hand, raced after Rita, a wide eyed look on his face.

Ragna groaned. "I'm guessing it was the Blastia."

The group followed after them. However, Yuri raced past all of them to Rita, who had paused at the entrance to circular courtyard. "Rita!" He grabbed her arm. "You can't—If you go near that—!"

She pulled her arm out of his grip. "Let me go! If I don't do something…He'll overload! The aer is already pouring out like crazy, and at this density it'll kill someone!"

"Yeah! Like you!" Yuri snapped. "Don't—!" She jerked out of his second lunge and hurried over to the blastia. "Dammit! Are you crazy, Rita?!

"It's okay!" The brunette's fingers slid up and down the magic circle panel that had popped up. "I'll just readjust the aer volume! Then…everything will be fine…"

Flynn was behind the party. When had he fallen behind? "It's too dangerous! You've got to get out of here!"

"Ugh…" Ragna brought a hand to his chest. The heavy feeling not unlike killing intent was pressing down on him again. Why was he…feeling like this? He heard, behind them, Commandant Alexei appear and order Flynn to evacuate the citizens. The Knight Captain accepted the order and turned to do his job…

But Rita's yell made him pause.

"...No! The flow of aer has outstripped his capacity. At this rate, it'll either swallow the city or even explode!" The people collapsed near-by began to panic at this declaration and ran from the courtyard.

As the blastia's dangerous orange glow began to brighten, Estelle and Noel, almost on instinct, exchanged looks before racing forwards: They weren't going to let Rita die! "We're here, Rita!" Estelle gasped.

Estelle was glowing a sharp gold while Noel was shining with blue. Ragna stepped forward, feeling like he needed to go and pull Noel away from Estelle. What if the pinkette hurt her—Wait, what was he thinking, Estelle wouldn't do that—!

Just when Rita was about to stop the blastia from _really_ going out of control, it exploded and the trio were sent flying. Ragna, no longer feeling rooted to the spot, ran over to Noel, who was coughing weakly. "Are you alright?!" he demanded touching the blond's hand. She gave him a weak grin before collapsing, all of her energy spent.

The silverette pulled her into his arms before looking up at Rita and Estelle. Estelle seemed fine beyond a few nicks and scratches and was busy trying to heal Rita, who had taken the brunt of the explosion for the princess.

Picking up the blond properly, he turned to Yuri, who was hovering near by, staring at Rita as if she were dead. "Stop that!" Ragna snapped, irritated. "Go check on Karol, dammit!" The dark swordsman seemed startled to be ordered like that but hurried over to the male brunette in any case.

Turning to Estelle, he groaned. "Oi, Flynn." The blond knight twitched slightly and nodded. "Can you pick up Rita? We need to get to the goddamn inn already."

* * *

Noel and Rita had been placed in rented out beds and, not wanting to look at Noel's far too still form, Ragna moved out of the room. Yuri passed him on his way in and the silverette paused and glanced at Karol, who was curled up against the wall, an aura of 'I suck' coming off him.

Oh, damn, did that mean _Ragna_ had to be the one to cheer him up?

Half tempted to peek into the room and demand that Yuri come back out and help him, Ragna flopped down on the ground next the young brunette. Karol glanced at him, obviously confused.

"…Augh, I freaking suck at this bullshit." Ragna rubbed his temples. "Look, kid, what the hell is wrong?"

Karol blushed. "A-ah well…" He looked down at his feet. "I'm…pretty pathetic. I mean, I ran away back in Caer Brocram and today I couldn't do anything…and Nan hates me…!" Oh crap, was the kid going to start crying?

Ragna sighed. "Alright, listen here. When I was your age I'd only recently started learning to fight. From the sounds of it, you've been learning how to fight since you were really young." Karol glanced at him, startled. "And the whole being kicked out of guilds all the time thing? Well, it means you've got more experience in a large amount of things. You may not be a master of one of them, but you probably know a lot more about lots of things then just one." He reached forward and ruffled the kid's hair. "And when you get to be as old as me, kid, you'll realize that type of stuff is real important."

"Though." Ragna scratched his cheek. "I can't help you with Nan. I'm absolute _shit_ with relationships." Karol laughed, which, in Ragna's books, meant he had succeeded in cheering the boy up. He actually kind of felt proud of himself that he managed not to snap at the kid once.

The hammer wielder began planning with the strap of his bag. "You know…I was talking with Yuri earlier, while you, Rita, and Noel were off somewhere, and I mentioned wanting to start a guild…Yuri said he'd join if I did…I-I was wondering if you and Noel would like to join, too?"

That was a surprise. How many people had asked him to join something without some ulterior motive? "Well…I'd have two conditions. One, Noel has to say yes to that as well. And the second, well, if Rita needs me or Noel, you gotta let us go and support her, even if it's only emotionally."

Karol blinked. "But even if Rita did need you two, would she even admit it?"

"She doesn't have to." Ragna smirked. "Me and Noel have got her pegged. Can't lie to either of us to save her life." This caused Karol to laugh again.

"Okay!" The hammer wielder said brightly, "Then, it's a deal Ragna!" right when he was going to shake the man's hand, there was a crashing noise from the room. Startled, the two fighters leapt to their feet and hurried in.

Inside, they saw Rita kneeling by her bed, Noel with Bolverk raised in an attack, Yuri by the balcony, and Estelle once again checking over the brunette. "Noel? Yuri?! The hell happened?!"

"Dragon Rider," Yuri said, "Don't know why he attacked us though…He's only ever gone after blastia before, from what I know."

"He was attacking Estelle and Noel for some reason." Rita called from her spot by the bed.

Ragna clutched a fist. "Why?" She shook her head: The mage had no idea.

Left with no choice but to give up, the party got ready for bed. Though, a certain Grim Reaper stayed up long after the other had fallen asleep, just to be certain that Dragon Rider didn't come back…

* * *

  
**Chapter 09**

**Out of Jail Free Card**

**_END_ **


	11. Guild Capital

Your silence will not protect you.

― Audre Lorde

* * *

"Well…" Yuri gave Estelle a tiny grin. "Take care on your way back to the capital."

It was the morning after the fiasco with the blastia. Both Noel and Rita were up and moving around perfectly fine. Now, the party was seeing Estelle off, as the pinkette was about to leave them for good, to return to Zaphias.

Yuri gave the princess a stern look. "Do you have everything? Wouldn't want to have to come back later." She nodded. "…Okay, let's go find Flynn. I'll take you that far."

Karol was straggling behind, a downtrodden look on his face. To Ragna's immense relief, Noel moved back to talk with him. It was soon made clear. "Guys…If we're going to find Blood Alliance, we're going to have to…go to Dahngerst." He wilted at the thought. "Man, if I go back there now, they'll all just laugh at me..."

"Dahngerst…" Noel mumbled. "Well, I don't care. I won't laugh at you, Karol." The young boy smiled weakly at her.

"Hey…if that's the guild capital, it would be a great place to get information about creating a guild," Yuri said in an off-hand manner.

Rita frowned. "Guild..?"

Karol nodded once. "Yeah, I asked Yuri if he wanted to start a guild with me and well…" There were murmurs of understanding before the party moved out from in front of the Inn. They needed to find Flynn.

Unfortunately, it seems Flynn was long gone. "Where the hell did he go?" Ragna grumbled, irritation evident on his face.

Ruffling her bangs, Rita seemed oddly delighted. "Doesn't look like that Flynn character is around here anymore."

"Does that mean you're staying with us for now?" Karol asked, a curious look on his face.

"Well, I..." Estelle clasped her hands in thought. "Would that be all right?"

Yuri seemed about to disagree but was interrupted by Commandant Alexei. "You cannot simply do as you wish. Your highness must return to the capital. Flynn has already set out to tend to other business. Now then." The silver haired man turned to Rita. The mage gave him a wary look. "Rita Mordio, we would like you to investigate yesterday's blastia malfunction."

The female brunette scoffed. "That's pointless. I already looked at him this morning and couldn't figue anything out."

Alexei shook his head. "No, we would ask that you go to the forest of Keiv Moc."

"The hell does Keiv Moc have anything to do this?" Ragna snapped. Noel nodded in agreement, though she sent the silverette a scolding look for his wording.

Karol glanced at the older man. "The plants affected by the disaster here look just like the ones in that forest. That's probably why." Noel 'Oooh'ed in understanding and Ragna shrugged, somewhat uncaring of that fact.

The Commandant ignored the side conversation. "We have reports of tree mutations and of monsters increasing in both number and aggressiveness. Messengers have gone to the capital, but much time will be wasted finding a gifted mage." Rita sighed and merely denied any ability regarding the plants. Alexei didn't buy it. "Consider their connection to the aer. I imagine that is within your league."

"Besides." Rita suddenly announced, ignoring him. "If…Estelle is going back to the capital, it would be best if I went with her."

"What…does that mean?" Estelle asked, looking confused.

On the other hand, Alexei was giving the mage a stern look. "You are a researcher in an imperial blastia laboratory. You must undertake the tasks assigned to you."

Estelle clasped her hands with a frown. "Um... Then there should be no problem if I accompany her to the forest, right?"

Alexei sighed softly. "Princess, please do not make suggestions that are clearly out of the question."

"If this has something to do with Aer, sir, wouldn't it be helpful to have Estelle and her healing artes around?" Noel asked weakly, trying to look like she _wasn't_ trying to boss the man around.

"Even so…" Alexei sighed. He was about to deny the blond request when, to Ragna's disgust, Hazama showed up and signaled to the silver haired knight. The commandant leaned down and the green haired snake whispered something into his ear and the man nodded one. "On a second thought." He addressed Noel. "Perhaps it would be best if she went with you. My only condition is that these four come with, Princess, Rita Mordio."

Yuri shrugged, Karol nodded his agreement, Noel smiled gently, and Ragna? Ragan grumbled a grudging agreement: It wasn't like he _wouldn't_ protect the two girls.

Alexei turned away as the Kritiyan woman from before appeared. "Flynn left you a message." The commandant told Yuri. "'Take care of Her Highness.'" The dark haired swordsman gave Alexei a somewhat wary look before nodding.

Karol cheered. "All right then, it's the forest of Keiv Moc by way of Dahngrest!"

* * *

"Hey, Estelle?"

"Yes, Noel?"

"What were you, Rita, and Yuri talking about? All I heard before the Dragon Rider showed up was something about your blastia and healing artes…"

"E-eh?" _Flustered._ "U-um well…"

"…Oh! I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?"

"No…it's fine…Um, so are you and Ragna going to join Karol's guild…?"

_Hesitant._ "…Maybe. I'm not sure yet."

"Oh…"

* * *

"This!" Karol cried in very proud voice. "Is Dahngerst, my home town!"

Ragna whistled. "Pretty big."

"Yeah!" Noel clapped. "It's a lot bigger then Aspio or the other towns we've been to!"

Karol nodded knowingly. "Dahngerst is the second largest city in the world. The first one? That's the imperial capital!"

"Impressive," Yuri said, ruffling the hammer wielder's hair. Ignoring his yells of 'stop that!', the swordsman stepped forward. "…Of course, I'd thought it would be more dark and dank, you know? Like a den of villains."

"Yuri!" Estelle scolded. "It's just the bad reputation of the Blood Alliance is to blame for that, I'm sure of it."

The young brunette sniffed lightly. "Yeah. Jeez, Yuri. You make it sound like I'm a villain."

Rita snorted. "If you're a villain, then what does that make Yuri?"

"Ouch!" Yuri gasped. "How cruel. I would of course be the dashing hero." He starts laughing at the deadpan look that he received from the irritated Rita. "Anyway, how should we go about tracking down Barbos?"

"Welll…" Karol mumbled. "My best bet would be to go to the Union and check in."

Noel tipped her head to the side. "'Union'?"

"'A guild collective run by the five so-called 'master guilds'," Estelle said, "Right, Karol?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah. The Union also serves as the city's government."

Ragna frowned. "Isn't the Blood Alliance one of the Five Master Guilds?"

Yuri let out a sight. "Which means if we try and take him out, the Union will probably be on us too." Karol bit his lip. "…What's wrong, Karol?"

"...We won't know the answer to that until we ask the Don." The brunette mumbled.

"Don?" Noel asked, looking confused.

Rita sighed. "Don Whitehorse. He's the head of Altosk, one of the five guilds in the Union." The blond let out a soft 'Oh' of understanding.

"Well then, we'll just have to go and see him," Yuri said.

"Hey wait, he's not the kind of person you can just meet... I don't really know if...!" Karol mumble-cried, startled by the request. Both Noel and Estelle gave him a 'kicked puppy' look and the brunette wilted before their combined power. "…Union Headquarters is in the north part of town."

The streets were teeming with people. Every now and then, the party would come across a stall selling food and water. "…Is this many people normal?" Noel finally asked as they passed a stall with a shooting game, where a silver haired man was handing a large plush bird to a young blond girl in green.

Karol glanced at said stalls. "It's the Fall Festival—It starts in a couple of days so some people always set up stalls early. It's normal, don't worry!"

Reassured, the party kept moving down the cobblestone street. Every so often, people passing them will give the young hammer wielding brunette mocking looks: Ragna and Yuri glared back at them in response.

It was half way to their destination that Karol stopped. "Hey, what're you doing?" Rita snapped, being one of only two not to have noticed the looks he had been given along the way there.

He winced slightly. "What? Uh, n-nothing. I'm not doing anything!" Unfortunately, his shout garnered the attention of a pair of armored men nearby. The two shared dark smirks before stepping over to the group.

"Well, well! If it ain't little Karol!" The tall and leaner of the two guffawed. "Why are you coming back here, you little failure?" Noel twitched slightly at the title.

"I-I…"Karol trailed off as the stockier and shorter of the two man barked a laugh.

"Yeah, I don't see Nan." They could see a smirk barely hidden by the shadows of the helmet he wore. "She already ditch you? Ah hah hah hah!"

Karol leaned back, his eyes closed. Anyone could tell that the brunette was in a lot of emotional turmoil." N-no way! She wouldn't stop nagging so I took off!"

The two men continued to laugh, but that was enough. Noel snapped. "Stop that! Karol is a far better person then either of you two could ever be!" The blond's hands were curled into tight fists and Ragna's own hand was drifting close to her shoulder.

"So are you the latest guild to take him in?" The taller man laughed. "Don't delude yourself! This guy is a definite loser."

The stocky man snickered. "All this kid can brag about is the number of guilds he's joined! Oh, right, that's a bad thing."

Yuri gave them a friendly smile. "So, are these your friends, Karol? ...You could do way better then these losers."

"Yeah." Ragna smirked as the two began to splutter. "I'd say this guys are rate A slackers."

"Why you…!"

Estelle glared. "How undignified!"

The short man growled at her to shut up, but Rita spoke over him in a very loud voice. "You sure have a way of saying things. I mean, you're right, but..." She shrugged.

The men look about ready to attack the group, which would have ended badly for them, but a set of bells interrupted whatever bull crap was going to come out of their mouths next. The two men seemed to know what was going on, judging by the fact that they ran off, but the party was immensely confused. What was going on?

"Alarm…" Karol mumbled. "The monsters are here."

"M-M-Monsters?" Noel gasped, looking startled.

The pinkette healer clasped her hands behind her back. "So this shaking…is caused by the monsters?"

Ragna narrowed his eyes. "That's odd. Halure, I can understand them attacking, being such a small town and all, but Dahngerst with how damn big it is?"

Yuri nodded along slowly. "If that shaking is caused by monsters, they've brought quite an army."

"Yeah, but don't worry. Even if there have been a lot of monsters around here lately..." Karol reaaused the party. "Our barrier is strong and has never been broken before and the guilds take care of the monsters outside the barrier..."

Rita glanced up. "Well, the Union better scratch that off their bragging list, because the barrier is crashing."

"W-what?!" Karol looked up, followed by the rest of the group. Above, the blue rings that signified a barrier were beginning to disappear. "Crap!"

Estelle gasped. "The barrier...disappeared...?"

"Oh no…" Noel whispered. "The monsters will get in!"

"Calm down!" Ragna snapped. "There are plenty of guilds here that should have some about of fighting ability!"

Yuri nodded once. "True, but why don't we provide some back up for them, hm?" The party hesitantly agreed before setting out back the way they came.

Once they arrived Noel let out a gasp of shock. There were a loud of monster running about and tearing up the stalls for the Fall Festival. Thankfully, the stall owners weren't there. "This is crazy. Where are all these monsters coming from?" Yuri mumbled.

"This isn't right…!" Karol mumbled, confusion lacing his words. Ragna couldn't help but agree, there was something very off with both the situation and the monsters.

Estelle seemed to agree with him on the monsters. "Doesn't something seem different about the monsters as well?" Right after she said this, Rita hissed a warning as the monsters nearest them leapt forward to attack.

They were a pair of salamanders that were intent on deadly harm upon the party. Unfortunately for the monsters, they were quickly slashed to bits and taken care of. The group repeated this process several times when some of the still evacuating citizens were about to be killed. Yuri hurried over to help the woman but was nearly killed himself by the monster…if Ragna hadn't barreled in and cut the monster straight in half.

"Idiot!" The silverette snapped. "Don't go running off without someone on your back!" Yuri gave him a thankful grin before shooing the woman after the other citizens.

However, just as Yuri and Ragna moved to back up their group, an older man wielding a long sword attacked from above. "Don Whitehorse…" Karol breathed, surprised at the man's appearance. Behind Whitehorse trailed a group that was clearly his guild. The Don then orderd his men to begin their defense of the town.

Estelle was healing stragglers from the fleeing citizens and was the first to notice the blond knight that came running past. "Flynn!" The Captain was offering his aid to the Union Leader, but Whitehorse rejected the offer.

"OI, Whitehorse!" Rita roared. The man jerked his head back towards her. "Look, if we don't get the barrier back up, people will die no matter how strong you are! So let me go check it!" The Don seemed about ready to argue, but seemed to give in—After all, they didn't have any blastia researchers currently available to solve the problem.

While Noel was hesitant to leave the guilds to the fight alone, Ragan managed to convince her in very few words that they should get moving. After all, they'd have less to fight if they brought the barrier back up.

Once they got to the center of town, they saw the blastia. Rita frowned as she tapped away at the magic circles on it. "It's…been deactivated from the inside of the city!" She was furious: That fact meant someone from inside Dahngerst had deactivated the barrier…on purpose.

Cursing, Ragna moved over. "Can you reactivate the damn guy?" She shot him a disapproving look as if to say 'Of course I can!' Unfortunately, she didn't get a chance to say a thing as just as she was going to say something to the silverette, a long silver katana flashed down between them.

The two were both fast enough to dodge the attack, and so weren't even touched by it. Noel gasped at the owner of the blade. "Y-you? B-but…how? You weren't even there!"

"Hmph." Hakumen, one of the Six Heroes of their original world, scoffed. "So I have finally found you, Dark One." Ragna's eye twitched: He was still calling him that? "Today will be your end."

"Do you two know this guy?!" Yuri yelled at the two off-worlders as the party scattered from the long reach of Hakumen's blade.

"You could say that!" Ragna yelled back. "He mostly wants me dead for some reason or another—He was never very specific as to why!"

Rita dodged an attempt to behead her. "Dear Vesperia, you're just as bad as Yuri when it comes to people who're after you!" The silverette made a face at her.

Hakumen scoffed. "Stop playing around, Dark One! Or, else all of you shall die!" The long spiel about being 'The White Void' fell out of his mouth and Ragna resisted his urge to face-palm: Rita could set off two spells during that long speech, Estelle and Yuri could have stabbed him through, and Karol could have finished him off.

Idiot…

Though, he couldn't deny that the samurai was skilled—seeing as he nearly lost his head just now. When he dodged under the blade, Ragna didn't even see Hakumen's foot slam into his chest, which sent the red clad swordsman into a nearby brick wall.

Hakumen snapped over and Ragna, almost against his will, shut his eyes tightly, ready for the end.

...

Huh?

"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do that." Came a man's voice. Ragna's eyes opened and he jerked his head up to see a cloaked man. His face was covered by a steel mask and a single steel spike went straight through his head and could be seen poking out the back of it. One of his hands was raised to catch Hakumen's blade between two fingers. "For you see, my master needs him, and the girl, alive."

The Hero growled. "What insanity are you spouting? That man…He needs to die!" Hakumen was furious, and Ragna knew exactly why: This man was radiating the same type of loyalty that Tager showed to Kokonoe and everyone who had met the hero knew that he despised the pink beastkin.

Well, that, and he stopped him from killing Ragna.

"Ragna!" Noel called out from behind the two, Bolverk raised to shoot. It was a straight up stand-off, until Hakumen pulled his blade back, glared at the man (or so Ragna thought), and left the party without a backward glance.

When the man who had saved him was about to leave, Ragna forced himself to his feet. "Wait just one damn moment!" He growled at the unknown. "Who the hell are you and why the hell did you save me?"

The man paused. "…You may call me The Chronicler. And as for why I saved you, my master wishes for you to continue breathing. Stopping Hakumen from cleaving your head in two does follow along that goal." The Chronicler, if that was even his name, walked away and vanished down the nearby alleyway.

Before Ragna could play catch up, Flynn appeared. "Is everything alright?" The blond Knight questioned, his concerned eyes on Estelle.

"We're fine." Rita snapped from by the blastia. She was once again tapping away at the magic circles. "Just got attacked by a silver psycho intent on bludgeoning Ragna and Noel."

"…Ha?" Flynn glanced at her weirdly. "Am I supposed to take that literally or…"

"She's serious." Yuri shrugged. "That guy really didn't like them…Or more to the point, didn't like Ragna. What was that crap about 'Dark One' anyway?"

Ragna shrugged, wincing slightly as it stretched a wound on his shoulder. "Hell if I know. Bastard has been trying to kill me since we first met."

"Sounds like you and Zagi, Yuri." Karol said jokingly while Repede let out what had to be the dog version of a laugh.

The man rolled his eyes before turning back to Flynn. "So, didn't listen to the Don, huh?"

Flynn's cheeks reddened slightly. "I'm just doing what I can to help. How's the repair of the barrier blastia going?"

Yuri tapped a finger on his chin. "Well, that'll depend on our genius mage, here." He turned to Rita. "So, what's the diagnosis, doc?"

"I'm not a doctor," Rita said, shooting him a dark look, "But…well...The core is still there. They just fiddled with your formula a bit and stopped it, didn't they? What the...? This is...an amplifier?! And this formula again... The same as they were using back on Ehmead Hill..."

Noel was busily patching up her arm when her head snapped up. "I just remembered!" The blond cried. "I thought it was odd that the barrier disappearing and the attack happening at the same time. I don't think that's a coincidence."

"…Probably not…" Flynn conceded.

"So does your appearance here mean this is tied up with all of the empire's problems?" Yuri gave his knight friend a somewhat wary look.

Flynn furrowed his brow. "I don't know." He admitted. "That's why I came here to check things out."

"...That goes there, and this goes...here!" Rita clapped he hands. "Aha!" The blue magic circles that consisted of the only visual form of the barrier popped up above their heads.

Estelle clapped her hands gleefully. "That's our Rita!"

Ragna smirked. "Nice going, Brat." Rita puffed out her cheeks and shot the silverette a dirty look for the 'brat' title.

The blond Knight let out a soft sigh. "All right, time to clean up the monsters outside the barrier! The guilds won't be able to complain if we fight monsters outside the city." Flynn led the way back to the entrance of the city, waving goodbye to them over his shoulder.

"Time to go check out the Union, right?" Yuri smirked before they too left the barrier blastia behind.

* * *

"Man, Hakumen is freaking persistent. He even chases me to _another world_ just so he can kill me…"

_Sigh_. "Well, it could be worse!"

"How?"

"…Um…Tsubaki and Jin could be here…?"

"Oh, great, my psycho little brother and brainwashed girl. And with my luck, they would be…"

"R-Ragna!"

* * *

"Who are you all?"

The speaker was a young ginger haired man wearing a full suit of armor. It bared the crest of the Union and he stood in front of the Union building, which could only mean he was a guard.

Yuri placed a hand on his hip, trying to look relaxed (and succeeding). "We need to talk to the Don about something. Help us out, could you?"

"It's a matter that concerns the five master guilds," Karol said.

"I haven't seen you around here recently. What guild do you belong to?" When Yuri denied beign connected to any guild, the guard gave them a cautious look. "…Unfortunately, the Don has left town in pursuit of those monsters."

Ragna grumbled. "Well, isn't that just our luck? Damn…this just had to happen right now…"

Yuri crossed his arms. "I see…thank you for letting us know. Come on, guys." He gestured to the party and they left the guard behind. Once away, he sighed lightly. "Ah, well. Wanna go look for information in town?"

"We're not going to go and help the Don?" Karol asked, looking surprised.

"Do we know where the nests are?" Noel asked back, slightly upset she couldn't do much to help out.

Karol winced. "Good point…"

Rita rolled her eyes. "Since it seems like you won't be making progress anytime soon, I'm going to go check out Keiv Moc." Whe Karol glared at her, she snapped back; "I just want to get it out of the way as soon as possible."

"Then does that mean Estelle's going along with you?" Karol gave in.

"Yes." Estelle confirmed. "I told Alexei I was going to go, after all... Don't worry. We'll be fine between the two of us."

"Yeah…how about 'no'?" Ragna drawled and Yuri echoed him. Estelle seemed rather surprised by this. The silverette crossed his arms. "Do you really think we're going to let you go out into a forest that is probably filled with monsters like the ones that attacked the city?"

Karol glanced at the dark swordsman. "Are you really going too, Yuri?"

He laughed slightly. "I did promise Flynn I'd protect Estelle. And, well, we don't really have any good leads around town that we're following, anyway."

"Then it's decided! Let's go to the forest of Keiv Moc!" Estelle beamed at the party.

* * *

  
**Chapter 10**

**Guild Capital**

**_END_ **

* * *

**_NOL Profiling_ **

**_Hakumen_ **

One of the Six Heroes. This samurai is a deadly warrior with even deadlier precision. The only person currently on record to survive his onslaught is RAGNA THE BLOODEDGE.


	12. Forests of Keiv Moc 01

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.  
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

* * *

"Wow…!" Noel cried, her eyes wide. "This is amazing…"

Estelle nodded in agreement. "I never knew trees this big existed!"

Ragna crossed his arms. "They don't look very healthy. I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to be this overgrown…" Yuri placed hand on his chin, staring at the trees. He seemed to be deep in thought.

"It's just like you said, Karol." Rita crossed her arms. "It's like what happened at Heliord when the blastia went berserk."

Karol nodded before falling into a battle stance, following Yuri's example. "Careful…There's someone else here."

"Heeey! What a coincidence!" Out from the bushes came the annoying man known as Raven. Ragna's eye began to twitch. Why did they have to deal with this idiot again?

Yuri seemed to echo this sentiment. "What the hell are you doing in a place like this?"

Raven gave the dark swordsman a happy grin. "Ya know, out for a forest stroll, takin' in the nature..." Karol coughed 'fishy'. The ponytailed man brought a hand to his chest, looking offended (?). "What? Where's my welcome?"

The brunette mage glowered at him. "Um…Raven? You really think after what happened last time...that we'd be happy to see you?" Noel asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Aw, ya don't mean that. I can come in handy ya know," Raven said.

Ragna deadpanned. "You're not actually thinking to come with us are you?"

The purple coat fluttered slightly as Raven stepped closer. "Well, ya see, I heard you guys were the ones that solved the weird storm problem at Shaikos Ruins. And some similar stuff has been happening here. But it's usually a hell of a lot worse, `cause of the aer going out of control here." The ponytailed man gave the party an easy going smile. "So, how about letting this old man help ye guys out with yer problems with aer and you guys help me out with the weather problems."

Rita tch'ed. "You'd better watch your back. If you try anything funny, you're dead. Right, Lowell?" Yuri shot her an agreeing smirk.

"Hey, ya don't think my story stinks that badly, do ya?" Raven pouted at the mage's reactions.

Yuri crossed his arms. "Yeah, the stench is sort of coming off of you in waves." Raven began to sniff his sleeve after crying 'Really!' "I can't take responsibility for what I'll do if you make any sudden moves. Don't forget that."

The party, with the new addition of Raven, began their move into the forest. As they did, the weather began a turn for the worst as wind began whipping up around them. "This is like that happened in Shaikos Ruins!" Estelle yelled over the winds.

"What the hell are we supposed to do? Take care of the Aer problem or the weather problem?!" Ragna screamed. Man, those winds were _loud_.

Yuri let out an unheard sigh. "We could go ahead and try and solve the aer problem first, and if we come across whatever is causing the weird weather first, then we'll take care of that first!" The group agreed as the wind began to die back down.

Raven hmm`ed to himself while the party eyed him cautiously from behind them. "Yep…this weather is weird, alright…" He laughed slightly and turned from them. "Aw, don't mind me, just take care of whatever you came here for first!"

"What should we do about him?" Estelle whispered to Yuri.

The dark swordsman shrugged and turned to the archer. "Do you know any tricks that'll convince us you're worth keeping around?"

"Do I look like some kinda street magician ta you?" Ignoring Ragna's mutter of 'So what if you do', Raven's gaze fell on Karol and an evil grin crossed his lips. The brunette stepped back warily. "Hey, you c`mere a sec."

Karol groaned under his breath. "Why me…?" He stepped forward and the ponytailed man dragged him off.

"I hope he's okay…" Noel murmured, clasping her hands. Estelle nodded her agreement to the blonde's concern.

When Raven came back alone, Yuri narrowed his eyes. "What do you want with Karol?"

The ponytailed man didn't get a chance to reply as Karol began to scream. "Don't just leave me here!" The archer waved a hand at him in encouragement. "W-why me!" The brunette cried, dodging the huge bug monster's attack. He whimpered as this went on for several seconds. "O-okay, this isn't funny anymore!"

Right as he said this, Raven raised his bow and let out a shot. The arrow pierced the bug's armor but didn't seem to do anything besides that. When he received an unimpressed look from Ragna, the archer pouted at him. "Just wait a coupla seconds."

Concerned, Noel almost disregarded Raven's reassurance, but Ragna reached forward and grabbed her arm. "Even if that idiot's attack doesn't do anything, the Kid can take care of himself." Noel wilted and nodded, stepping back. Just as she did, there was a cracking noise and flash of light behind them and the monster was gone.

"I-it exploded from the inside!" Rita cried, looking shocked.

"What did you do?!" The dual gunner of the party cried, leaning against Ragna as she did.

Raven gave them a cocky grin. "Ya just wait for 'em to let their guard down, give 'em a little poke and then...bam!"

Rita scoffed. "Jeez... I bet you're great at parties."

Estelle glanced around the group before nodding to herself. She was determined. "I suppose that was good enough." Yuri shot her a startled look, surprised. "Really!" She assured the dark haired man.

"Hey, ya mean I passed? I can stay?" Raven grinned.

Yuri sighed. "It'll be much easier to do things to him if we keep him nearby." Karol stuttered in confusion, obviously not very keen to have the archer around.

"Things?" Raven grumbled to himself, now eyeing the dark swordsman warily.

Ragna, on the other hand, got it. "'The enemy of my enemy is my ally', right?"

"I thought it was friend?" Noel ask confusion.

"Ally is more realistic," Ragna said. The blond 'Oh'ed and brought a hand to her heart, understanding.

Rita tapped a finger on her chin, an odd smile on her lips. "…I hadn't thought of that, Yuri."

The archer inched away from the teenaged mage, seemingly terrified. "Okay, I just got a little chill up my spine." Estelle gave him a charming smile, which, as always, calmed down and reassured both the archer and the rest of the group.

As the party moved on with the occasional wind storm coming up every ten minutes or so, Karol was becoming more and more twitchy. Noel on the other hand was going stiller and stiller, getting so stiff that at one point, Ragna ended up having to rag her along by the wrist.

He, and the rest of the party, soon figured out why the two were freaking out, when one of the bug beasts leapt out at the hammer wielder. "G-get away, don't touch me! S-S-Stay back!" Noel blasted the thing several times while Karol wailed and waved his weapon around.

"Karol, Noel, its okay! It already flew away," Estelle said. _More like blown away_ , Ragna thought as he eyed the remains of the bullet torn monster. Noel was breathing slowly, her green eyes flashing death to anyone who said a word.

Which, honestly, was kind of terrifying.

Karol, on the other hand, was starting to calm down. He mumbled his agreement to Estelle's words before scurrying ahead of the group. "...Captain Karol seems a little different than usual, doesn't he?" Yuri observed with interest. Rita shrugged and when the party decided it wasn't a big deal, Raven made a rather asshole move.

"Wah!" The archer cupped his hand around his mouth to make the sound carry. "Bugs! A giant swarm of `em! Watch out!" Karol freaked out. Rita, in retaliation, sprayed a green can of…something at Raven's face. He gagged. "Hey, what was that for….Eeew, agh, my eyes…"

Rita sniffed angrily. "I was just giving you a little something to keep away the giant swarms of bugs!"

She turned to hand over the spray to Karol when she saw Noel. The blond had Bolverk jammed up in Raven's face and the ponytailed man seemed ready to bolt. Ragna sidled up between them. "Oi, Noel. Don't attack allies, it's a stupid move."

Noel paused before putting the dual guns away, her cheeks flaming red. "Ah…sorry, Raven. I…don't really like bugs."

"I noticed," The pony-tailed man said weakly.

* * *

"Hey, Ragna?"

"What do you want, Brat?"

"Tch! Don't call me brat, you moronic buffoon!"

"B-Buffoon?! Why don't you shut it, you midget mage!"

"WHAT! That's it! Ancient Catastrophe!"

"Oh, fu—" _Explosion. Cough._ "Goddamit, Rita!" _Leaves._

"Hmph! (…Oh, damn, I forgot to ask about why he was using Fireseal…)"

* * *

"H-hey, Repede."

"Woof."

"Um…would it be okay…if I petted your fur?"

"…Bark."

"Oh! Thank you!" _Petting_. "Wow! Your fur is so soft, Repede!"

"Eh? Noel, what're you doing…Oh! Hey Repede."

"…Growl." _Leaves._

"Ah…Don't go…"

"Oh…I'm sorry, Noel."

"No, its okay, Estelle."

* * *

"…Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Ragna grumbled as the party slowed to a stop in large clearing.

His bad feeling was most likely due to the combined facts that the wind was currently swirling around them, as if the clearing was the center, and that the exact same thing had happened at the Shaikos Ruins. The group all knew this, except for Raven. Who, of course, decided to do something completely idiotic.

"Why are ya'll so jumpy?" The ponytailed archer asked, stepping towards the center of the clearing.

Noel let out a startled gasp. "R-Raven, please come back! That's a really bad idea!"

He gave her an odd look. "What is?"

"Stepping out there, you numbskull!" Rita snapped. "We don't know what'll happen—"

"I see you've started learning how to use your own power instead of the borrowed power of another." Raven let out a startled yowl, leaping away from the center of the clearing. Standing there was the cloaked man they had met before and who they only knew as 'That Man.'

Yuri frowned. "What do you want with Ragna?" He asked in a somewhat bossy voice.

Had it been anyone else, Ragna would have been irritated. But this was Yuri, one of the few people who actually seemed to give a damn about Ragna's well-being.

That Man sighed slightly. "I am…just doing a couple of old friends a favor. Of course, one of them has no idea what I'm currently doing. Young Rachel would most likely have said no to my proposal."

"Rachel?!" Ragna hissed, surprised. What did that bunny leech have anything to do with this? "How do you know Rachel?"

"My, you are a curious one, aren't you?" That Man shook his head. "I apologize. I am unable to tell you how I know her or why I have brought you here. Of course, I had no idea Miss Vermillion was going to be brought along, or else I would have been more cautious." For some reason, the silverette was sure That Man was giving Noel a charming smile. "I am most sorry for that."

Noel stuttered slightly. "U-um, that's okay. I'm glad to be with Ragna. But….Why are you here, right now?"

That Man clapped his hands slightly. "Oh, yes! I almost forgot!" A magical circle appeared. "Photon~"

"Oh, fuck you," Ragna said in a deadpan voice before tearing away from the explosion of light.

Yuri decided to take advantage of That Man's casting to slide in a give him a few jabs. Unfortunately, it didn't do much. It was almost as if…he had been going easy on them before.

Repede, on the other…paw, was sick of being ignored by most of the group. Focused, the dog thrust the blade in his mouth at That Man's legs. It missed. Meanwhile, Karol was peering at the man through the monster lens. He still didn't understand how these worked on human enemies, but whatever. He called out the element weaknesses and other stats—the others needed to know.

That Man tutted at them. "Now, I know you can do better." Ritaa was flung into a tree thanks to a stray Photon spell. "You're strong and your power is yours. Use it."

"Oh, shut up about that!" Ragna roared, letting Noel use Fireseal like a backboard to jump above That Man's head. She shot him several times with Bolverk before sliding around another attempt to swat her away like he had Rita.

Raven hissed as he dodged another spell. "Man, this guy is crazy strong! How'd you beat him last time?"

Estelle slowed to a stop next to him. "We're pretty sure that he was going easy on use before…and for all we know, he could be going easy on us now," The pinkette said grimly. Raven winced at the fact before letting off a flurry of arrows

The party really was having a tough time at it. That Man seemed intent on trying to either blow them to bits or skin them like an animal. "This guy is overly strong," Yuri said, dashing under another spell blast.

Rita had gotten back up to back the swordsman up, her eyes flashing. "Ooooh! I'm so pissed _off_!" She shrieked, her chain whip smacking at the cloak trails of That Man.

"No way…" Noel hissed, clutching her arm as Ragna was blown back once again. "He…Maybe I could…?" Pursing her lips, the blond gave herself a strong nod. All she had to do…If she could mimic his actions from back then, she knew she could do it.

Ragna shot her a confused look when she stood, completely still. The silverette didn't get why his 'partner' was standing so still like that but quickly decided that as long as she was out of firing range from That Man, he didn't care.

Instead, he focused on trying to break through That Man's guard.

That didn't turn out so well, as Ragna soon found himself limp against an overgrown tree, unable to move quite yet.

Noel saw it. And she sure as hell didn't like it.

She glared fiercely at That Man, her emerald eyes spitting fire. Noel gripped her dual guns and raised them as one. "You're going to pay for that!"

**_Mystic Arte_ **

**Valkyrie Veil**

Whipping the pistols up, That Man's guard broke and he flew up. Judging by his faint gasp of surprise, he hadn't noticed her coming. Her bullets became lances of energy that speared through That Man's body several times as he was stuck in midair. Noel stopped, her back to their enemy, and released the 'trigger' for the energy lances, causing them to explode. That Man recovered rather quickly from the attack.

He could move again, Ragna noted as That Man rushed towards Noel's turned back. _Oh, like hell he's going to hurt her!_

To even his own surprise, the silverette slid forward, his fist extended and clutched. Next thing anyone knew, That Man was being blown back by a fist of fire to the face. Everyone watched in startled shock as he stumbled back, paused, and then straightened. "Oh! That one actually hurt!" This was said far too happily in the party's opinion.

Seemingly finished with the fight, That Man began to…monologue, for lack of a better word. "My, I do hope Rachel is thankful for all my trouble." He tuts. "You are a rather stubborn person, Ragna. I'm glad, however, that you're starting to trust others again." That Man seemed to be sending the silverette an encouraging smile. "I do hope you find the answers to the questions you didn't realized you had. I shall see you all again later." And then he just vanished into the air.

Rubbing the temples of his forehead, Yuri let out a soft groan. "You know what, guys? Maybe we should just find a place to rest for a bit."

His only answer were a series of replying groans and moans.

* * *

  
**Chapter 11**

**Forests of Keiv Moc**

_**END** _

* * *

CURRENT PARTY

_Ragna_

TITLE: Grim Reaper

-A Bringer of Death to all those who oppose him. Do not get in the way of what he wants, or else you shall become a dead man walking.

Level 34

_Noel Vermillion_

TITLE: Vagrant Gunner

-A NOL Traitor, she now relies on the one she had originally been chasing.

Level 32

Rita Mordio

TITLE: Grand Mage

-A Powerful Mage that won't be beaten by just anyone.

Level 31

_Yuri Lowell_

TITLE: Skilled Swordsman

-This guy is no average warrior: He's someone you have to be wary of.

Level 33

_Estelle_

TITLE: Cleric

-A kind-hearted healer that refuses to be beaten.

Level 32

_Karol Capel_

TITLE: Determined Fighter

-He may not be the strongest person in the world, but he won't ever give up.

Level 31

_Repede_

TITLE: Dog Knight

-When did the Knights open up a Dog Faction?

Level 30

_Raven_

TITLE: Fishy Old Man

-This guy…he is pretty fishy. What's his deal?

Level 31

* * *

Ragna unlocked arte 'Volcanic Viper!'


	13. Forests of Keiv Moc 02

Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.

~Socrates

* * *

Someone was shaking him. Ragna glowered at the person, his mismatched eyes flashing in anger until he saw who it was. Noel, whom seemed somewhat tired herself, was giving him a guilty look.

Ragna shrugged it off. "Dammit Noel….What is it?"

"Um…," Noel said, "I was wondering…No, actually, it's your turn to make breakfast. You haven't made it yet so…"

The silverette groaned slightly. Breakfast, really? Well, he supposed now would be a good a time as any to get it finished, before Rita started complaining…

He wondered if the teen mage was alright, seeing as the night before she had been rather concussed. Of course, that hadn't stopped her when she began advising them on the best places to camp…or, technically, the worst places to camp for the night.

* * *

_"In place like this," The concussed Rita said, "You have to be careful where you camp. You could accidently camp in an area of high Aer concentration."_

_"And that's bad." Yuri, who Rita was using a crutch, grumbled._

_She nodded. "Pretty much. It could kill us during the night, so we should look for an empty clearing. Any areas that are too close to the really large trees are dangerous, because those trees are being directly influenced by a large concentration of Aer."_

_The party grimaced as one at the thought._

* * *

He stared into the pan of bacon he was cooking. She had gone on about that for an hour before they had finally found a place to rest. Once they had, Estelle healed the mage's concussion and Rita had stopped her rambling.

Behind him, he heard shuffling. It sounded human, so he only tensed a tad. "Mmm, your food smells delicious, Ragna." Yuri stated as he shuffled his feet over to the silverette.

Ragna rolled his eyes. "You're acting like that old man, with your stupid shuffling, Lowell." Yuri only laughed at the comparison while Raven, who had been behind the swordsman, complained loudly that 'Ragna was picking on him.'

The others soon followed and the party enjoyed a delicious breakfast. Of course, after the first bite, each of them stared at Ragna like he had grown another head. He had snapped at them and the group, for one reason or another, burst into laughter.

After breakfast was finished and all of the utensils had been cleaned, they stood and began their way through the forests once again.

Battle after battle, with Karol occasionally running in the opposite direction of the enemy, they fought through the dense and rather uncaring forest. Rita navigated them past the highest areas on concentration, though Estelle, Noel, and Ragna still felt their effects from a distance.

For Ragna, the effect was a tad different then for others. It often felt like something was trying to rage its way to the surface, in defense against the heavy pressure of something that desperately wanted him dead. A simple glance at Noel confirmed it for him: She too had a similar feeling to his own, though it obviously had some differences. Perhaps…not as strong?

After some time of this battling thing, they came across perhaps the largest tree yet. The giant oak's roots were spread open and a circle of golden orange light rose from between. As they saw it, a large group of monsters fell upon them.

The monster party didn't take too long to get rid of and their mage friend quickly assessed the situation. "The trees, the monsters, it's got to be the aer that's causing this." Rita murmured softly. "There is no other option…"

More monsters fell down around them while Karol cried out a warning. They were completely surrounded by them.

Raven sighed. "Ah, so this is the end, huh?" He brought a hand to his chest in over-done dramatics. "Farwell, all my dear fans across the world!"

There was a groan from his right as Ragna fended off one of the giant mantis beasts. "I highly doubt they'll care that much!"

"I'll make sure that your gravestone, Raven, reads 'Here lies the world's biggest sap'!" Yuri sniggered. He gestured to Rita, while Raven whined. "Can you end this?"

The mage 'hmph'ed. "Of course I can! Just give me a few minutes…"

However, just as the mage was about to start a rampaging spell arte, someone in blacks and dark reds fell from above. Long slightly curly hair that ended just above his waist swayed as the man threw his long sword into the air. A light blue magic circle appeared beneath him and, after a flash of light, obliterated the enemy forces.

"Who are you…?" Noel asked, shocked. The man turned to them and eyed both Ragna and Noel with a somewhat confused look, one that seemed to say 'What are you?'

It was too close to one of Terumi's looks for Ragna to take lying down. "You heard Noel." He barked, irritated. "Who are you?!"

Estelle shot him a stern look. "Don't be rude, Ragna!" She paused. "I mean…I would like to know that too, but there's no need to rude about it." The red-clad silverette's eyes twitched.

"Hey…Duke…" Raven muttered out loud. The party glanced at him. The archer knew this guy?

The man didn't answer. Instead, he made to leave. "Wait!" Rita cried, forcing her way over. 'Duke' paused and glanced back at her. "What is that sword!? Let me see!" The brunette hurried over before he could refuse and began looking it over. "It's like it cuts through aer…Similar to Ragna's Bloodscythe…" Said silverette unconsciously clutched Fireseal, pausing afterword: He wasn't using Bloodscyhe right now.

'Duke' let out a soft sigh. "What good would that knowledge do for you…?" He paused before glancing at Ragna. When the man's eyes fell on the sword, Ragna growled slightly in defense. 'Duke' narrowed his eyes in return before stepping back.

"Well, it could help us stop Blastia from going berserk…Especially as Bloodscythe only seems to cut through Aer when it's in scythe form." Rita replied. "If Bloodscythe could be changed at will to the scythe form, that we might have been able to change something about what happened back, then…"

"…" He began turning away. "This is only a distortion. It is a natural occurrence."

Rita frowned. "…Distortion…"

Estelle stepped forward with Noel trailing behind. "Before you go," Noel said.

"Please take our thanks for saving us." Estelle finished.

"…Do not go near the Aer Krene." He warned.

Rita frowned while Estelle gave him a confused look. "Aer Krene…You don't mean this place, do you?"

He sighed again, most likely at their ignorance. Ragna gritted his teeth. "Aer Krene are the springs from which all aer in the world comes." 'Duke' explained.

"Springs of Aer…" Rita whispered, glancing over her shoulder at the glowing tree cavern.

Yuri narrowed his eyes. It was obvious he was as wary of this person as Ragna. "Who are you?" The swordsman questioned after stepping forward. "This isn't the kind of place you just to for a walk." When he received no reply, the dark swordsman grumbled under his breath. "…We would've been dead without your help though…so…Thanks."

'Duke' acknowledged Yuri's thanks with the faintest of nods, gave Ragna and Noel one brief look, and left. Ragna still couldn't figure out what that last look had been about. Anger? No. Confusion? Odd, but it seemed to fit.

Rita was frowning. "That Power…?" She pursed her lips. "Similar to Bloodscythe, but not the same…The Rizomata Formula…?" She crossed her arms, irritation pouring from every one of her movements. "Augh! I can't tell anything from just checking things out here! I need to see some others!"

Noel turned to the cave that glowed gold-yellow. "Hmm…That guy, from earlier, said these 'Aer Springs' are all over the world right?"

"Yup!" Raven exclaimed brightly from right behind the girl. Noel squeaked and flung her arms around Ragna, who stared at her, startled. The two stayed like that for a few minutes before the blond let go all of a sudden, her cheeks burning red.

The brunette mage rolled her eyes at the archer. "Yes, Noel, he mentioned that. So, I'm going to be following you guys around after this, to see if I can't get a look at a few more of these Springs…."

Yuri gasped dramatically. "Oh, really? My, I thought you were going to go with Estelle back to the capital."

"Well, obviously not right now, as Estelle is probably going to be here for a while too, so…shut your mouth, Lowell." Rita glared. Yuri raised his hands in a placating gesture, grinning at her widely.

Estelle raised her hands to get their attention. "Um, shouldn't we go? More monsters might show up…" The party shared a wince before nodding in agreement with the pinkette. This fact was a very true and one that they didn't want to have a confrontation with.

Hurrying to leave the valley, Ragna cast the so-called Aer Spring a wary look. He swore he could still hear soft, malevolent whispers echoing from it…

* * *

"Hnnn…."

"Hey, Ragna, are you all right?"

"Oh, hey there, Estelle. I'm fine, why?"

"(My Healer's instinct was screaming that you weren't?) You look like you have a head ache…Come to think of it, so does Noel."

"It's just a headache, Estelle. We'll be fine. I doubt those healing artes of yours can do much for a headache anyway."

"Well…yes…but still!"

"I think you should be more worried about Yuri…I think he got hurt in the fight earlier."

"…What! Yuri!"

_Distantly_. "Yeah, Estelle—Woah!"

"…Thank god she got off my back."

* * *

"So, those Aer Springs are called 'Aer Krene', huh?"

"That's what that Duke guy said anyway."

"Hmm…Hey, where do you think they could be?"

"Probably place where there have been reports of high Aer Concentration, Noel."

_Serious._ "Yeah, that would make sense." _Concerned_. "Um…Rita?"

"Yeah?"

"Hmmm….U-um, nevermind, it wasn't important." _Leaves._

_Confused._ "Al…right?"

* * *

At this point Ragna was just a bit confused as to where the hell they were headed. Where was that dumbass Don? Because at this point, he was seriously considering dragging everyone back to town since, with their group's luck, the Don would probably be back in town already.

Rita was muttering under her breath.

"You sure mumble a lot, don't you?" Raven said cheerily.

The mage would have said something snarky in return if it wasn't for the earth rumbling ominously beneath them. "W-what?! Another Monster attack?!" Karol was tripping over his feet and nearly fell on his face.

It wasn't.

Instead, it was a stampede of monsters heading deeper into the forest. Ragna grabbed both Noel and Estelle, as the two were too startled to move. Yuri, in turn, dragged Karol back and pushed his head down. "Keep your head down."

"Hey…" Noel mumbled. "Look over there." She gestured to where the monsters had run from as the stampede vanished.

Estelle pressed her hand to her mouth. "It's…it's them…!"

"Don!"

Ragna trailed behind the group, surveying the man they had been looking for. He was old, appearing to be around the same age as Valkenhayn…at least physically. His face and chest were decorated with red tattoos and he wore mainly black and white clothing with gold lining. Don Whitehorse was leaning heavily on his sword when he looked up at them. "…Did you all do something?"

Yuri ignored Noel's mutter of 'bad grammar' and said, "Do something? What do you mean?"

Don Whitehorse clearly shared high stamina with Valkenhayn, as he heaved himself to his feet with ease. "Those savage monsters turned as docile as pups before running off!" He narrowed his eyes at them. "What did you do?"

Ragna crossed his arms. "We stopped that flow of Aer, remember? That probably had something to do with it."

Karol stepped forward, the only one wiling to explain to the Don. "The monsters turned tame when we stopped the runaway aer!"

The Don frowned. "Hmmm…Runaway aer…"

"Oi, Old Man!" Rita snapped, stepping up to stand next to Yuri. "Do you know something?!"

His frown deepened at the title, but didn't reprimand her (which Ragna was glad for, he didn't want to hear one of her rage induced rants again). "Well…My old friend Belius used to say something about it." Karol muttered something under his breath, but Ragna didn't hear, too busy with Noel's muttered rant about bad grammar and trying to calm her down as quietly as possible.

Why did bad grammar of all things set her off?

"Who is Belius?" Rita questioned with a frown.

Karol looked up. "The Duce who rules the coliseum of Nordopolica."

Ragna and Noel both looked up when Repede bumped his head against their legs to gain their attention. Noel ruffled the fur behind his ears before turning back to the group along with Ragna. Don Whitehorse was speaking: "What's this about runaway aer?"

A certain brunette was eager to please. "Oh it was really amazing!" Karol had moved closer to the Don to answer the question. "More and more really strong monsters kept coming, but we—"

"Kid." Ragna spoke up. Karol turned to give him a questioning look. "…We should keep that incident to ourselves, I think."

The Don gave a light nod of agreement. "He's right. You don't do deeds like that so other people will notice…"

"…You do it to protect the ones you care about." Noel finished with a knowing smile.

_That wasn't what_ I _was thinking, but whatever._ Ragna snorted.

Karol mumbled an apology while Estelle stepped past Don Whitehorse to kneel next to one of his injured men. "Excuse me." Estelle glanced back at him. "But could I take a look at his injuries?"

The Don opened his mouth to question what she meant, but the pinkette was already healing the injured man. He thanked her with a small smile. Sighing, the Don shook his head slightly before turning to proper look at the group. "Hmm?" Don Whitehorse frowned slightly. "Ain't that…Raven, that you? Quit hiding!"

Raven let out a soft, but dramatic sigh before sidling out of his hiding place in the greenery. "Humph." _Odd, that wasn't one of Raven's usual greetings,_ Ragna thought with a snort.

"Our man ain't givin` ya any trouble, is he?" The Don questioned Yuri.

"Whaddaya mean, trouble?!" Raven gave the older man an indignant look. "The reason the monsters got tamed was our doing, mine especially!"

Noel's eye twitched. "I don't remember you doing much…" She grumbled.

"Eh?" Karol stepped back, surprised. "Raven's a member of Altosk?!"

"Apparently." Ragna muttered.

Don Whitehorse whapped Raven. "Ouch!" The archer leapt back, out of reach. "Gramps! Cut that out!"

"Shut up, you!"

Yuri smirked to himself in amusement before stepping towards the Don, serious. "Don Whitehorse." The man grunted in acknowledgement. "I know we've only just met, but there's something we have to talk about."

Before anything more could be said, they were interrupted by one of the Altosk members. The man murmured softly to him before the Don nodded. "I see. All right, you dogs! Time to move out!" He shot Yuri an apologetic look. "Sorry `bout this, but something's come up and we need to return to Dahngrest." The man promised to allow them to talk them if they came by the guild hall and Altosk departed.

"I wonder what could be happening…" Noel murmured. "Did Hakumen show up again?"

Ragna grumbled. "I doubt he'd attack anyone in town, Noel. Bastard is set on killing just me." Noel frowned at him as Yuri crossed his arms, obviously deep in thought.

Karol looked up at Yuri. "We're…gonna make one right? A guild, I mean." The brunette boy glanced at the world-traversing duo. "Ragna and Noel said they might join, too, if we did."

"Hm? Did you really?" Yuri seemed surprised.

"What's with the surprised look?!"

"Heheh." Yuri smirked at Ragna. "I just thought you, at least, weren't one to give your allegiance to just anyone."

Noel hide her smile behind her hand while Ragna squawked in indignation. Raven chuckled. "That's great and all…but what do ya guys think?"

"Think about what?" Estelle asked curiously.

Raven stroked his beard. "About how awesome I am? I clearly have no match."

"Well your large ego has no match, that's for sure." Ragna smirked. Yuri sniggered while the older man pouted at the silverette.

Karol grinned. "I didn't see much awesomeness from you, myself." Raven feigned immense hurt. Noel glanced at Rita, who seemed out of it.

"…Rita?" The brunette mage made no move to respond. What could she be thinking about?

"All right." Yuri spoke up. "I'd like to go back to Dahngrest to meet with the Don and look for Barbos."

Estelle stepped towards Rita. "Rita, when he's done with that, we should go back to report…Rita?" The girl really was out of it, as she had yet to react to the princess.

After having her shoulder shaken by Estelle, the mage turned to Estelle with a faint frown. "Sorry, what was that?"

"…When Yuri's done, we should report back to Alexei…" Estelle gave her a concerned look. "Is something the matter?"

Rita shook her head but neither Ragna nor Noel were buying that for a second. Rita was clearly worried about something and also confused. They had only seen her like that once before, shortly after they had first ended up with her…

Ragna sighed through his nose. Why did he have a bad feeling all of a sudden?

* * *

  
**Chapter 12**

**Forests of Keiv Moc**

**END**


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